True Reflection
by regulusgal
Summary: Post chapter 194. Kyoko was asked to reprise her role as the angel from 'Prisoner' for Fuwa Sho's newest PV, and Ren is casted to act as the angel's love interest. Meanwhile, Kyoko's in an emotional chaos related to her feeling towards her senpai and still angry at Sho. Will the shoot for this PV be done smoothly for the three? First fanfic, so please be nice.
1. The Rise of the Fallen Angel

Chapter 1: The Rise of the Fallen Angel

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters.**

"Can you please repeat what you said, Sawara-san?"

At the moment, the office room of LME's talent section was filled with a black aura full of rage and hatred. Sawara Takenori, the head of the said talent section, could not help but sweat and gulp while looking at a chestnut-colored short-haired teenage girl who was sitting in front of him. She, Mogami Kyoko, was looking at him as if glaring the life out of the poor man.

_Why am I getting this feeling of déjà vu seeing her like this? Ah, I remember, this also happened that time when I mentioned 'Prisoner' PV offer a year and a half ago..._

After summoning every bits of courage possible, Sawara forced a smile on his face and carefully repeat what he had revealed before to the girl. "As I said before, I was contacted by Queen Records this morning for an offer. Apparently, the angel you played in Fuwa Sho's 'Prisoner' PV was so well-received..."

The dark aura in the room instantly vanished.

"Really?" the girl asked him with a pair of glossy innocent eyes. And Sawara was once again reminded of how innocent this girl was and how she loved every characters she had played, even if she disliked them before she brought them to life in front of the cameras and reality alike.

Sighing a bit, Sawara's smile turned to be one more natural. His gaze upon Kyoko showed how proud he was of her growth as an actress. "Yes, and turns out that people are curious of what becomes of the angel after her conduct of sin. They have finally found the appropriate song of Fuwa to go with the plot they have prepared as the continuation of 'Prisoner', and the producer wants you to reprise the role."

A joyful smile and blush appeared on Kyoko's face. No word could describe how happy she was that the very first role she had played (aside from Bo the chicken, of course), was still remembered by lots of viewers who wanted to know about the story of the fallen angel's life after her falling to the insanity at the end of 'Prisoner'.

In her own personal opinion, receiving this offer would not bring any harm to her state of mind. Asami Haruki, Sho's producer for all his PVs, was not a difficult person to work with. The woman even praised her acting after the shoot had been done. And if the story really picked up from the end of 'Prisoner', then there was a big chance that the idiot blonde singer would not appear in the new PV. How could an already dead character appear again after he was killed?

Her initial reaction for this offer, though, was something that she could not help. She still could not exactly control her demons whenever Sho's name was mentioned, although her last meeting with him was almost half a year ago. Kyoko just could not forgive him for how Sho had forced her into his car, causing unavoidable misunderstanding between her and her senpai, calling her in the middle of her 'work', and in the end, pitting her with the Demon Lord.

After some consideration in her head, she lifted her eyes to face her superior. "May I know the details of this new PV, if you do not mind, Sawara-san?" she asked with an easy smile.

"Ah, about that, the President wants to talk to you about the details."

A somehow awkward silence filled the room for a few seconds as Kyoko processed the statement before finding her voice again. "Eh? The President?"

Sawara nodded his head while crossing his arms in front of his chest and leaning against his office chair. "This PV, Mogami-kun, is in fact the joint project by LME and Akatoki Agency long-awaited by the press."

* * *

When Kyoko has excused herself into the president's office, she was startled by the sparks resulting from a glare war between two very tall men already seated facing each other.

The first one was the president/owner of LME, Lory Takarada. It did not surprise Kyoko to the least that the flamboyant mustached man was dressed in Mayan attire and seated on a golden throne. He let his quite long curly black hair loose under a golden crown resembling a helmet with colorful long feathers. Beside his sandaled feet, a large mighty bird that Kyoko could only guess a falcon was perched quietly, staring at its surroundings.

His opponent in the glare war was the very person that had brought turmoil inside Kyoko's heart for the past months. Tsuruga Ren sat on a low golden bench; his expression was completely pissed off. Kyoko made a silent note in her mind to not provoke the Demon Lord further before observing her respected senpai. His tidily-styled hair was dyed dark brown again, his original color, after Cain Heel's black long hair. Today, Ren was dressed casually in a black wool jumper, a brown thick leather jacket, a pair of beige pants, giving him the image of absolute professional and masculinity.

Kyoko's eyes moved up to have a glance at his face. His jaws were clenched as tight as his two fists. His two eyebrows were knitted together in a frown, and his brown eyes were radiating deadly intent, which was at the moment directed solely at Lory. These signs of his foul mood made Kyoko wonder what the president could have possibly done to anger Ren this much.

Beside Ren, his manager, Yashiro Yukihito, sat nervously and unnoticed. Now that Kyoko paid a good attention at him, she could see the bespectacled man sweating profusely, tongue-tied. His eyes glanced back and forth from Ren to Lory, and then to Ren again.

_What a poor soul_, Kyoko thought. If she were put in his shoes, she was sure she would fare worse than the manager.

It did not take long for Lory to break eye contact with Japan's number 1 actor and address Kyoko in the room. "I see you are here, Mogami-kun. Have a seat."

Kyoko sat down gingerly on another low bench near the one occupied by Ren and Yashiro, cursing quietly in her deepest mind on how the piece of furniture was nearer to Ren than to Yashiro. However, she relaxed a bit when her eyes were caught in eye contact with Ren. His bad mood was gone, and a heavenly smile spread across his heavenly handsome face. Any normal girl would have swoon over this smile, but it only made Kyoko cringe as her demons were attacked by its rays.

"I hope I did not intrude at a bad time, President," Kyoko said to Lory after breaking eye contact with Ren and turning to face her employer.

"Nonsense," Lory replied as he swatted one of his hands in a gesture of denial. "On the contrary, you came at a very good time, Mogami-kun. I believe Sawara-kun has informed you of _that_ offer, hasn't he?"

Catching which offer Lory meant, she nodded her head.

"Now, Mogami-kun, I need your help to convince this blockhead here," he continued as he gestured to Ren, "to take part of that offer as well. This project is very important to LME and I have to send in the best of the best we have, don't you agree?"

Kyoko's eyes widen. She took a glance at the scowling Ren before turning back to Lory. "P-President, y-you mean…"

Lory nodded while smiling almost haughtily. "Yes, Mogami-kun, you and our Ren here will take part of Fuwa Sho's 'True Reflection' PV."

* * *

**This is my first fanfic, so please kindly review :) Thank you!**


	2. No Ill Feelings

**Special thanks to Katya Malfoy, Cocloud, MaliceArchangela, addenza, charlestonstexan, nju87, sakurahana123, santanaann4524, empress-of-the-lab, lloo161, onliafaze, and lostanddistracted for faving, following, and reviewing the first chapter. Hope this chapter lives up to your expectations.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters.**

Chapter 2: No Ill Feelings

She just could not believe what she had heard. Kyoko stared at Lory, still wide-eyed, speech long-forgotten. Sometime later, she shifted her gaze to look at Ren, whose bad mood had come back the moment Lory mentioned the PV, from the corners of her eyes.

_So this is why the Demon Lord is present here and now… What in the world is the President thinking?!_

Shaking her head, Kyoko returned her gaze to the still smugly smiling Lory. "Err… Sir, about that… Can you please… err… elaborate it further?"

Lory's smile faded a bit. He could sense hesitation from his favorite Love Me member, of what he could not tell. But his best guess was that she was scared of the tall man sitting near her, emitting murderous aura. _Damn Ren for ruining the mood for us_, he thought, pouting inside his heart.

"So, like I said before, Ren, and I know Sawara-kun had told Mogami-kun this, Fuwa Sho's newest PV, 'True Reflection', is decided to be the collaboration work of Akatoki Agency and us, LME. I had a meeting with Asami-san from Queen Records yesterday about the details, and she is more than happy to meet with you guys later this afternoon about the story and little bits of details of how she wants it done.

However, from what I could take from my meeting with her, the shoot won't begin until Monday next week, giving you plenty of time to think about how to portray your characters. It will take the whole day, so Yashiro-kun, I want you to push back all Ren's work from Monday to other days…"

"Now hold your tongue, Boss," Ren suddenly butted in, his rage taking control that he spoke in perfect American English.

Apparently, his behavior was completely unacceptable for Lory that the president shoot a silencing glare at him, showing superiority in it. "What I haven't told you, Ren, is that I won't accept a 'no' from you. The press is already sniffing that there is bad blood between you, Mogami-kun, and Fuwa. Akatoki has kindly offered this PV as a way of reconciliation between LME and his agency, to show the press that we have a good relationship, and that you and Mogami-kun have no ill feelings towards Fuwa."

_No ill feelings, my a**_, Ren thought. _He has hurt her bad and now he wanted to have her again. And that prick has made all his intentions clear to me, of all things_.

Without him noticing, the room had already been filled with not one, but _two_ dark aura. Kyoko's face contorted in a totally visible rage that made Lory and Yashiro to cringe.

_What does he mean no ill feelings? My feelings toward him are exactly that of pure hatred! _Kyoko screamed in her head. _He practically kidnapped me and forced me into his car, then caused me to be in the same room with the angry Ren-san…_

Involuntarily, her thoughts strayed to the events occurred that night several months ago after the incident with Sho, when Kyoko was confronted by an unknown personality resting in her senpai while playing Setsu. She had thought that it was not normal for him to break character; so summoning all her courage, she had confronted him that time as Setsu.

"Mogami-kun?"

Lory's deep baritone voice snapped her out of her wandering thoughts. When she lifted her head up, she could see all three men looking at her with worry.

"Did you hear what I was saying just now?" Lory asked again.

Realizing that she had spaced out, Kyoko abruptly stood up and launched herself to the floor on a dogeza. "I am terribly sorry, Sir!" she cried. Lory put a fake offended look while crossing his arms in front of his chest and huffed.

"Apology accepted, young lady. I was asking you whether you were thinking of rejecting this job."

"Ah," Kyoko said in realization of what Lory was planning to convince Ren, "no, President. In fact, I came here because I want the details of this PV before agreeing to the contract."

"So can I take it as a 'yes'?" asked Lory with an eyebrow lifted.

Kyoko smiled and nodded her head. All three pairs of eyes were directed to Ren now, pitting him into a dead end.

Ren cursed quietly in his mind. _Damn you, Boss. You know how I can't let her be alone with that damn brat._

And just like that, Tsuruga Ren accepted the job with an exasperated sigh. Yashiro and Lory could not help but smirk.

* * *

"Kuon, are you sure about this?" Kyoko asked nervously in a small voice almost like a whisper, sitting next to Ren in their usual family restaurant while waiting for their food and Yashiro to finish pushing Ren's schedule back to further dates.

During Setsu's confrontation with Ren's unknown personality, Kyoko had learned about her senpai's past: about his real identity as Hizuri Kuon, the son of Hizuri Kuu and Juliella Hizuri; about how he was fired several times by numerous directors; about how people had seen him as a talentless riding on his parents' notoriety; about how he had been bullied when he was 15 years old, how he had gain a best friend in Rick, how he had gotten violent, and how he had seen Rick's death right with his own eyes.

He also had told her that time about the time he visited Kyoto with his family when he was 10 years old and his meeting with a sweet pig-tailed 6 years old girl at a clearing not far from where he had stayed. He had told her how happy he had been when he spent his time with the girl; how the girl thought of him as a fairy prince.

Everything had become clear to Kyoko that time. The fact that her senpai, Tsuruga Ren, had been her fairy prince Corn all along. And she, up to this moment, did not know whether she should be happy or angry for that.

The unleashed Kuon had told her about how he extremely loathed Fuwa Sho because the blond singer had hurt her and tossed her away. But when his confession had almost come out of his mouth, Kyoko had cut him off and changed the subject to the next shoot of 'Tragic Marker'.

That time, Ren had understood right away that revealing his past as her Corn would not open her heart to the possibility of love. But nevertheless, he had been glad that she had not condemned him as a murderer, like what Tina had done, but received all of him without judging.

Back to the present, Ren looked at his still unrequited beloved, sighing. "Even if I want to reject it, what can I do about it? You know that the Boss will surely find other ways to force me into it."

Kyoko gave him a small smile.

"And, of course, knowing that you will be in there as well, in the same room as _him_, how can I stand aside and let him talk to and use you as he see fit?"

Her already small smile faded at that. Ren's displeasure of what had happened seeped through his every being. But only seconds after that, he cleared his throat and the atmosphere became normal again.

He gave her a casual smile of his own. "Let's leave the issue right there. This will be my first time acting in a music PV, so I'll just see this as a chance to broaden my experience. I'm looking forward to working with you again, Kyoko. It has been quite a while after the Heel siblings. I miss working with you."

A joyful smile spread across Kyoko's face. "Yes. I'm looking forward to it, too, Ren-san. Let's do our best!"

* * *

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	3. Introducing the Love Interest

**Special thanks to tommyhiragizawa, SB-KMS-OSN-OHSHC-EDLA, booklover321, arienrhod, SilverStella, rijfblue, ricestalk-2004, TuTsXxX, MizzDarky215, leavesfallingup, and Lady Cooper for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat!, its characters, and the song "Rising Blue" mentioned here. From what I have gathered, it's a Fuwa Sho's character song sung by Miyano Mamoru in Skip-Beat! PS2 visual novel.**

Chapter 3: Introducing the Love Interest

Asami Haruki, Kyoko had to admit, was as gorgeous as ever.

The woman was tall and, to Sho's pleasure, exuded femininity in the way her body was curved and shaped. Her long straight hair flowed to her waist, tied at the back of her neck with a short, thick ribbon. She dressed smartly with plain pale green shirt topped with a white low-necked sweater, and black cotton trousers. Her arms were crossed below her chest which, much to Kyoko's self-pity, was more than abundant, while leaning her back on her chair.

When she noticed Kyoko, Ren, and Yashiro entering the meeting room, she stood up and addressed them with a smile, starting at Ren first.

Kyoko took a look at Ren from her corner of her eyes. _Surely every man will be turned on by the sight of beautiful sexy woman like Asami-san…_

To her surprise, Ren just addressed Asami back politely as he usually did his workmates. She could tell that his focus was completely on the sudden job proposition given to him by their flamboyant president.

Kyoko shook Asami's offered hand with a professional smile and took a seat beside Ren. Yashiro did the same, except he sat down at Ren's other side, putting Ren in the middle, directly facing Asami.

Asami then took the seat she had occupied before and looked at the three LME employees before her. "Firstly, I want to thank you for your willingness to participate in this project."

Ren scoffed quietly in his mind. _Yeah right. Willingness, if that includes being forced to agree to it just to protect her from that lame excuse of a boy._

"I don't want to beat around the bush, so let's start right away," Asami continued while opening her netbook. She dabbled with it for a while, then turned it so that Kyoko, Ren, and Yashiro could see the screen.

"As you are informed, the PV is for Sho's newest single, 'True Reflection'. This is his second ballad after 'Rising Blue'. I have one copy made for Kyoko-chan and Tsuruga-san each; I need you to listen to it before the shoot next Monday."

_Like hell I will listen to it_, both Kyoko and Ren thought. But the song was related to their work, so they relented.

"Now on to the story," Asami said while tapping the finger pad of her netbook. A slideshow of pictures appeared on the screen. "At the end of 'Prisoner', the angel played by Kyoko-chan went insane because of her sin and her joy of saving her friend."

She looked at Kyoko to see if the actress still remembered the plot set for 'Prisoner'. The girl nodded her head confidently as the sign, so Asami pressed on.

"After that, she is banished from the heavens to the earth. But because her eyes are clouded by the weight of her sin, the earth looks miserable to her. And she can't survive in her new harsh world, as life in heavens is easy.

"She then faints and is found by a halfling." Asami paused at that, and turned her eyes to Ren. "That halfling will be played by you, Tsuruga-san. He too, lives a wretched life. As a halfling, he is not accepted both in heaven and hell, so he is left to wander the earth without any aim to accomplish in his life. He is not evil like the demons, he still knows pure emotions because of his angelic heritage; he is just simply condemned.

So, he takes her in to live with him and takes care of her. With the times they spent together, he gets to know her better and sees through her sins to reveal the pure, sweet angel she was. The angel, not being able to shrug all of her pure emotions, starts to care about the halfling as well. Soon, they fall in love."

Kyoko felt herself cringe at the mention of the 'L' word. _I have to act as if I'm in love with Ren-san?! NOOO! This won't be good for my heart! I've been struggling to keep that box closed with the only lock attached to it! Why now?!_

Ren, however, had an entirely different thought. _So in this PV I get to be close to her as a lover? This might be a perfect chance for me to confess my feelings to her_. He chanced a glance at the girl sitting next to him. _Too bad that damn prick will be there. I just wish he won't do anything to ruin this_.

_I see. So this is why the President was so insisting Ren to take this job_, Yashiro thought. Unnoticed by the other three people in the room, a devil grin had made its way on Yashiro's face while he was looking intently at Ren. _Now, my boy, aren't you glad you didn't reject this offer? If you can't use this opportunity wisely, I will fall into deep depression. Seeing you only making small progresses has depressed me as it is._

Asami, of course oblivious to all those thoughts, continued with renewed optimism."But it's not as easy as thought. The angel, still blinded by sin, refuses to admit her feelings towards the halfling. On the other hand, the halfling, always shunned by angels and demons alike, is already convinced that he is worthless and has no right to be happy. Even if he loves her, he feels that he has no right to have a chance of her loving him back."

This startled Kyoko and Ren. _Somehow they sound just like us, even when the circumstances are different_, they thought. Beside Ren, the grin on Yashiro's face widen impossibly.

"Even so, he only wants her to be happy, and he knows that she is the happiest when she was an angel, from the way she speaks of her life with her best friend in heaven."

_Of course she is_, Ren agreed in his mind, still locking his gaze at Kyoko from the corner of his eyes. He was reminded of the 6-year-old Kyoko who had smiled wholeheartedly at him. _Her smiling was so beautiful it made me have a crush on her when I was little. She was my ideal girl that time. And _he _of all people had to hurt her that bad, changing her inside out. But, even though she has changed a lot, she's still breathtaking in my eyes... And I fall in love with her all the same, even deeper._

"One day, the dead demon's angel lover comes down to look for her fallen friend. She sees her happy with the halfling, and in her heart she can't accept it."

_I know it_, Kyoko thought sadly. _Moko-san told me the same that time, about her hating me if I kill her lover._

"She then confronted the halfling, telling him about a ritual that can make him either fully an angel or a demon. His thoughts instantly go to the fallen angel, and he asks her friend if the ritual can also apply to her. The angel says yes.

"The concept of the ritual is to give away either the light or the darkness to another person. If the halfling chooses to become a complete demon, he will have to give his light to the fallen angel, turning her into a pure angel again," Asami paused again and looked at the two actors in front of her. "Are you still with me?"

Kyoko blinked her eyes twice, and then voiced out her interpretation of the concept. "So, to make the point clear, if the halfling chooses to become a pure angel, my angel will be the one becoming the pure demon?"

"That's about it," Asami replied as she nodded her head. "And of course, the halfling chooses the first option. He loves her so much he doesn't care about what will happen to him.

"So, the ritual was done. He turns into a demon and she reverts back into an angel. But his body started to break down as it cannot hold the immense power of darkness. The former fallen angel, finally admitting that she loves him, frees herself from her friend's embrace while they ascend to heaven and drops herself into his arms. She confesses her love and shares her powers with him through a loving kiss."

All pairs of eyes widened at this very moment. _A KISS, she said?!_

Yashiro's inner fan girl squealed loudly at the back of his mind. _Finally! Now they can't avoid their way out of this! Good job, President, Asami-san!_

_A kiss with Ren-san?!_ Kyoko screamed mentally. _NOOOOOOO!_

"But that's not the end of the story," Asami continued. "With the angel sharing her powers, she also cuts down her lifespan. As they gradually disappear together, the former halfling confesses his mutual feelings of love to her and promises to find her soul whatever it takes. Years later, they are reborn as humans and meet at a meadow lush with greens and flowers, and they fall in love with each other again."

The whole room was silent until Asami realized that the three were expecting more of the story. She cleared her throat and said in matter-of-factly way, "That's the end of the story. Technical details such as choreography will be explained on site. Any question?"

"Who is going to play the other angel?" Kyoko asked, although she had kind of known the answer.

"Now you see," Asami sighed while she repositioned her glasses, "We are hoping that Mimori-chan will agree to reprise her role as well, but it is quite difficult as Sho won't be playing any role in the shoot. We are still waiting for an answer from her manager, and I take it that Sho is doing the best he could to convince her."

Ren and Kyoko could not help but snort.

"The final decision of who is going to play the other angel will be made this Friday. Any other question?"

Ren raised his hand. "Just a curiosity though, Asami-san, but will Fuwa-kun be present during the shoot?"

"Of course he will; it's his PV after all. Why do you…" Asami's question was halted to a stop as her eyes glided to Kyoko. "Oh, I see. Well, yes, he will be there, but as I said before, he won't have a role in the story. We're just taking some scenes of him singing on a stage prepared. Some flashback scenes will be taken from our records for 'Prisoner' to save time.

"And by the way, I'm expecting all of the cast and crew to meet up at Queen Records at 10 sharp in the morning on Monday. I don't know when we're going to be finished, though, as we still have to consider possibilities of technical problems on site. Lunch will be provided, and we'll make sure that dinner is provided as well if the shoot drags long into the night. But it will not be more than 9 pm as the building has to be closed at 9 pm sharp."

Yashiro nodded his head in response as he scribbled this info into his notebook.

Asami then stood up followed by the three. She smiled and said, "Alright, I am looking forward to meeting you at the shoot."

* * *

"C'mon, Pochiri, don't make things more difficult for me!" Sho exclaimed exasperately.

At the moment Fuwa Sho was seated on a couch in his room at Akatoki Agency, facing a weeping girl with long black hair. The yellow-haired singer was clad in his ripped jeans and denim vest. He did not see the need to wear thick clothes such as pullover or sweater in the room as the room heater was on at maximum temperature.

In front of him, Nanokura Mimori, or Pochiri, as he usually called her, cried stubbornly refusing to play as her angel again in his new PV. He knew that she hated Kyoko, hell, every girl he knew hated Kyoko, but it was his obligation to the president of his agency to convince her to sign up to the project.

"But…" Mimori sobbed, "I don't want to play her friend anymore! Once is enough! And you're not going to play the demon who loves me again!"

Sho just sighed heavily.

"And I just don't want to be in the same room with her and that pinhead actor of hers!"

Now that perked Sho's interest up. "What did you say, Pochiri?"

Mimori's sobs quieted a bit as she lifted her head to meet with her prince's eyes. "Eh? Sho-chan, didn't you know?"

"Know what?"

"Tsuruga Ren will be participating as the male lead in this PV. I just hate him!"

His eyes widened in horror that exact moment.

* * *

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	4. Storm before the Storm

**Special thanks to thinkinfire, SHAJRIN, Faerie Light, balabalanceh, deea93, higito, Fallen-Angel-RM, spicymustard, Pannacotta, Jackie, The-lazy-bum, rarisa, wiccariangodessofthemoon, and two unknown guests for following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**And thank you for Katya Malfoy, leavesfallingup, rjifblue, Cocloud, and SilverStella for reviewing each chapter. ****Your support keeps me going.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Storm before the Storm

Aki Shoko just did not know what to do with her over-the-top spoiled charge.

When Sho had come back to the apartment they shared after trying to convince Mimori to participate in 'True Reflection' PV, Shoko had been surprised to see him with his now infamous 'Deva' mode (however, this particular 'mode' of his was only known by her and Asami so far, thus it was not that infamous). And she was pretty sure that it had to be related to Kyoko.

And after almost half an hour of pushing him to talk, he only mumbled one question. "Do you know about this?"

"Know about what?" Shoko asked, totally confused.

Silence filled the apartment once more, increasing her curiosity to the peak. Sho's face showed his displeasure clearly, and suddenly Shoko got the feeling that the problem she was facing right now was not only about Kyoko.

"Sho, what is it?" she asked again, starting to lose her patience. Even if she found this behavior of his a bit cute, she did not want to deal with it in the middle of the night, when she was supposed to be sleeping.

Sho's eyes moved to stare at her. "Do you know that that f****** pinhead actor is going to be in _my_ PV? On top of that, as the male lead?"

It took Shoko about 10 seconds to realize who the singer was talking about. And even after that, she chose to stay silent, not knowing what to say to nurse Sho's ego.

"I'll take that as a 'yes', then?" Sho mumbled with a frown. "Why didn't you tell me? Or wait, do you really plan to tell me?"

"It's because I know you will be angry like _this_ if I tell you!" Shoko said. If she was going to calm her charge down, it was better to do it fast. "Why are you so opposed of it? Don't you think it's better to have him? I mean, with him in the PV, we can gain more viewers and of course, more people will buy the single CD released a week after the PV…"

"Are you saying that I'm not that popular that I have to stoop that low and _beg_ him to act in my PV?!" Sho yelled, standing up abruptly from his seat on the couch, still in his 'Deva' mode.

Shoko could feel a headache coming for her. Pressing her fingers on one of her temples, she sighed. "Why don't you look at it this way, Sho?" she said. "In this project, _you _are the employer, and Tsuruga is just an actor hired by _you_ to act in your PV. _You_ are more superior than he is, and you can boss him around if his act doesn't please you. Furthermore, you can do it in front of Kyoko."

The mention of the phrase 'being more superior than Tsuruga Ren is' certainly did the job as Sho was certainly pacified, his smug smirk appearing once he looked like a normal human again.

_Why didn't I think of that?_ Sho thought. _Just you wait, Tsuruga Ren! I'll show you who is more superior and surely humiliate you in front of Kyoko!_

_Whew_, Shoko sighed inwardly. _At least he is happy for now. I wonder what will happen if I tell him about that particular scene… Oh, well, might as well just let him see with his own eyes._

* * *

Ren fumbled with his keys for a bit before unlocking the door of his condominium and stepping aside to let Kyoko in.

After the meeting with Asami, Yashiro, with his inner fan girl smirking slyly, had mentioned that Ren was free for the evening and urged Kyoko to accompany the taller man to dinner, lest Ren would definitely skip dinner. Being the worshipper of three meals a day, Kyoko had immediately agreed.

Kyoko hurried into his kitchen with the groceries, not saying anything to Ren. He put his keys and wallet into the drawer and strode to his bedroom to change his clothes. Once he was done, he walked back to the kitchen to see his beloved chopping some green vegetables with experienced hands, simply enjoying her activity.

He cleared his throat to catch her attention. "Can I help you with anything?"

"NO!"

An awkward silence followed the girl's sudden outburst. Ren was startled, and she could see it in his expression that she averted her gaze from him and stuttered. "S-sorry, I-I don't mean to… I-I m-mean… It-It's just a reflex, but…"

"It's okay, Kyoko," Ren said quietly. "I know I'm a destructive creature in kitchens."

"But still, I don't have any right to yell at my senpai like that!" she replied. It was silent again and Kyoko had to convince herself that it was not hurt she was seeing in Ren's eyes. "I-I mean… Of course you can help, Ren-san… Do you mind setting the table? I'll be done in 20 minutes."

Ren nodded and started working. Even busying himself, he still could not shake off the image of Kyoko, frightened to be near him. He still remembered the time they had been driving to the condo. She had moved to the passenger seat after they had dropped Yashiro off, but she kept herself close to the door, away from him. No one had been speaking during the ride.

_I think she knows that I love her, but she just has to insist to deny love out of her life…_ Ren sighed inwardly. _With the shoot coming up soon, I have to lay my claim on her fast before that damn prick make a move_. _But the question is, how?_

He glanced at Kyoko from his position in his living room, setting the low triangular table for dinner. _If I make a direct move on her like I would have certainly done as Kuon, it will definitely scare her more than now and she will reject me out of her life. She is scared enough and has accused me of being a playboy when I tried to get close to her._

"Dinner's ready!" Kyoko's voice snapped Ren out of his thoughts. He hurried to the kitchen to help her bringing the two plates of rice and oriental black pepper stir-fried beef to the living room while she brought over the water jug.

They settled themselves on the floor around the low table and started eating. Ren was more than eager to break the silence, so he began to engage her in small, easy talks about her school and part-time job at Daruma-ya, the place she lived at. The tactics was successful for a while, as she started to continue the conversation by bringing new topics to talk about, while at some times scolding him to finish his portion of dinner.

That was, until the topic of the PV was indirectly brought up.

It all began when Ren asked her whether she wanted to have breakfast together on Monday morning before they had to be present at Queen Records. Kyoko responded casually at first, agreeing to the proposition, but her expression turned dark only a second later. She started to scoop herself further from Ren.

Ren, noticing this, just could not take it anymore. He grabbed one of her hand, making the girl stop moving and lifted her eyes to look at him, frightened and confused. The gentleman Tsuruga Ren had vanished from the room, replaced by an annoyed Hizuri Kuon.

"Stop avoiding me, Kyoko," he said in a low voice. "What the hell did I do wrong?"

Kyoko's face was flustered. She averted her eyes away from him. "What are you talking about, Re… Kuon?" she asked, trying to stop herself from stuttering. Her demons were already dancing in glee. "I'm not avoiding you."

"Yes, you are," he replied quickly. "Do you think I didn't notice how you sat as gingerly as possible on your seat at the Boss's office, as if you were ready to bolt off any second? And what about how you sat as near as possible to the door when we were in the car? What about how you scooped yourself away from me, and refuse to look at me in the eye as we're speaking right now?"

He could feel her quivering, but he just had to know what was wrong. "Please, Kyoko," he pleaded in a much gentler voice, not wanting to scare her more. "Just tell me what on the earth I did wrong. You're killing me."

Silence filled the room again until he somehow heard her mumbling something.

"Sorry, Kyoko, what was that? I couldn't hear you," he said, leaning closer to her, not wanting to miss anything she said.

She spoke in a louder, trembling voice. "I'm scared, Kuon."

"What the heck are you afraid of?" he asked, confused. "If it's about that lame excuse of a singer, you don't have to worry. I'll be there and make sure he won't stand as near as 300 miles from you…"

"NO!" she cut him off, growing hysteric. "You just don't understand! I'm scared of you, Kuon! I'm scared that if we act as lovers in that PV, I'll just have to admit the horrid feelings I have for you! I'm scared that if I spend my time near you, these feelings will grow until I can't stop it! I'm scared that you'll open this box that I've struggled to lock and chain so that it won't open for the second time!

"I'm scared of getting hurt again! If I let myself fall for you, nobody can guarantee that you won't hurt me like what that jerk did! I just don't want to get hurt because of you!"

She stopped shouting, panting as she looked at the ground. She had unconsciously standing up during her hysterical moment, tears had threatened to flow from her eyes. Ren, or rather, Kuon, looked up at her while still seated on the floor, completely shocked.

He then gently raised himself up into a kneeling position in front of her and cupped her trembling hands with his bigger ones.

"Kyoko," he started softly. "Look at me. I beg you."

She lifted her face and met his eyes with her pair of tear-glistened golden orbs.

Giving her a small gentle smile, like what he had used to do when he had been 10 years old, he started again. "Kyoko, I've known you when you were that girl crying alone at that clearing, and I've known you when we met at LME, and trust me, I will NEVER hurt you like that a** did to you."

Dread started to spread in her every system, as if it had started anticipating what he was going to say next.

"Kyoko, please believe in the fact that I cherish you, not just as a kouhai, not just as a dear childhood friend. It's because I lo-"

"STOP IT!" she screamed, shutting her eyes as tightly as she could, tears had fallen down on her face. She yanked her hands from Kuon's grasp and placed it on the sides of her head, almost yanking her hair. "PLEASE JUST STOP IT! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! PLEASE!"

The room was silent for the umpteenth time. She took deep breaths, trying to calm herself. "Please," she sobbed quietly. "I beg you, please don't say it."

Kuon just did not know what to say. He longed to draw her into his embrace, to soothe her and assure her that everything will be okay, that _they_ will be fine, that she is safe with him from any harm, now that he had moved on from his haunting past thanks to her acceptance.

But he knew he could not do all those things lest he wanted to make her hysteric again and pushed him away.

Minutes passed by and Kyoko started to move again. She grabbed her bag and walked to the front door. She murmured with a low voice just above a whisper, "I'm going home. Thanks for the meal."

Kuon started to walk to the drawer where he had put his keys and wallet in. "I'll drive…"

"Don't," she cut him off. "It's not that late. And I just need to be alone for a while. Please?"

He froze at where he was standing, contemplating on letting her go as she wished or forcing his way to drive her home to ensure her safety. But seeing her state of emotional havoc, he decided to relent to the first option.

"Call me when you reach home."

Kyoko did not say anything as she walked away. The door opened and closed a minute later.

Kuon let out an exasperated sigh. _Good job, Kuon you idiot. Now you have shoved yourself away from her life for good_.

He stayed frozen for a while, thinking of every way possible to make things right. After that, he bolted off to reach his keys.

* * *

Kyoko curled herself into a ball-like position in her room at Daruma-ya, tears had fallen down again as she struggled to not cry like a love-sick female.

Correction: she was already a love-sick female. She just did not want to admit it. Something she did not admit nor believe was something nonexistent, and she wanted those feelings for her fairy prince other than respect stayed that way.

The Taisho and Okami had had that worried look when she had come in, but she had not said anything to them other than that she had eaten dinner and she desperately needed a rest before bidding them good night.

Guilt started to invade her as images of her senpai, hurt because of her refusal to let him say whatever he had wanted to say and she had not wanted to hear the most, popped out uncontrollably from her memories.

_Damn you, Tsuruga Ren, or Hizuri Kuon, or Corn, or whoever you are_, she cursed in her head. _Why do you have to do things and open this wretched box?_

Her mind involuntarily flew again to that time when he revealed everything about himself.

* * *

**I wonder if I wrote Sho as too childish and spoiled for his own good, or if I moved too fast with Kyoko and Ren's relationship. I just want to settle the conflicts between the two before throwing whatever plan Sho makes to humiliate Ren in, but maybe I should slow down a bit? And I wonder as well if I made Ren a bit OOC?**

**For thinkinfire and Pannacotta, the next chapter will answer your requests. Please stay tuned :)**

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	5. His Honesty, Her Acceptance and Refusal

**Special thanks for Perfect Beauty, Erica Erixon, Lithameaw, Bastardgirl, 09gemgg, Sam2143, and vixenpiper for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**This chapter's main focus is the flashback of what happened ****_right after_**** Chapter 194, or at least what I thought might happen. I've read a few author's fanfic of what they thought might happened, and it has been pretty difficult to make this one different. It's hard to put myself on Nakamura Yoshiki's shoes, either.**

**thinkinfire and Pannacotta, this chapter is dedicated for you guys. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters.**

* * *

_Kyoko curled herself into a ball-like position in her room at Daruma-ya, tears had fallen down again as she struggled to not cry like a love-sick female._

_Correction: she was already a love-sick female. She just did not want to admit it. Something she did not admit nor believe was something nonexistent, and she wanted those feelings for her fairy prince stayed that way._

_Guilt started to invade her as images of her senpai, hurt because of her refusal to let him say whatever he had wanted to say and she had not wanted to hear the most, popped out uncontrollably from her memories._

Damn you, Tsuruga Ren, or Hizuri Kuon, or Corn, or whoever you are_, she cursed in her head. _Why do you have to do things and open this wretched box?

_Her mind involuntarily flew again to that time when he revealed everything about himself._

* * *

Chapter 5: His Honesty, Her Acceptance and Refusal

Kuon was taken aback when Kyoko rolled him over onto the bed and straddled him. Looking at her sultry expression, he could only conclude one thing.

The girl looking at him with a seductive gaze while licking her lip, just near her lip ring, was Setsuka Heel, the sister of Cain.

Bad news: she _disliked_ all men other than her monster of a brother.

He was more surprised when he heard her giggling.

"Oh, my, my," Setsu murmured in a sultry voice, un-Kyoko-like. "Look who we have here."

Her right hand moved to cup his cheek. The sly smile on her face never left her somehow annoyed face. Setsu never liked interacting with other men, especially not with her Cain around.

"Now tell me, who are you?" she asked. "And where in the world are you hiding Nii-san?"

"Setsu," Kuon called for her in a bit stern voice. "Get off me."

"And why should I do that? You haven't answered my questions, by the way. Where's Nii-san?"

"He's sleeping somewhere inside me right now. Now get off."

She eyed him with narrowed silver eyes, as if the man below her was telling her a stupid lie. Another being inside her, named Natsu, was already whispering to her to let her out so that she could play with the mysterious man, but Setsu refused to do so. The problem in front of their face was about Cain's life or death matter.

"Bullshit," she mumbled. "He has no reason to do that. Bring him back, _now_."

"Unfortunately for you, Setsu," Kuon said, abruptly sitting up and forcing her to move away from him, "I can't do that just yet. Instead of me waking Cain up, why don't you let Kyoko out? It's important."

"No way."

Kuon raised an eyebrow in confusion and annoyance, his patience slowly running thin. "And why is that?"

"She doesn't want to wake up."

"Force her. As I said, this is important."

"And how will that benefit me in any way?" Setsu asked back.

He sighed deeply. "Damn it, Setsu, just bring her here now, and I promise you'll get to see Cain soon."

This perked Setsu's interest. "How long is soon?"

"2 hours at most. And Cain will spend the whole day with you tomorrow. Please."

Setsu's eyebrows knitted in a frown as she weighed her options. Finally, she looked at Kuon again. "Two whole days for Nii-san and me, no interruption except his work. And I get to cuddle with Nii-san tonight."

"Deal."

She fell silent for a while, until she said something Kuon did not expect. "You haven't told me who you are, though."

_Might as well_, Kuon thought. "Tell Kyoko that a Hizuri Kuon, or Corn, as she knows better me as, wants to talk to her about everything she wants to know."

Setsu's eyes widened a bit in realization, and suddenly she was Kyoko again. She looked at Ren with wide, watery eyes, her body trembling a little.

Kuon reached for her hands and grasped them gently, a small smile on his face. "Long time no see, Kyoko-chan. I've missed you so much."

"C-Co-Corn…?" she called him in confusion. "H-how…?"

"I was born in California to Kuu and Juliella Hizuri," he began, looking intently at her, waiting for any response. Kyoko's eyes widened more. "When I was 10, Dad brought Mom and me to Kyoto for the holiday. I was bored to hell when my parents had a lunch with Dad's old friends, so I escaped to the forest and found myself nice clearing with a stream.

"I was basking myself with nature, enjoying myself when a small pig-tailed girl suddenly came and wailed loudly, before clapping for my back flip and calling me a fairy." Ren's smile grew as he lifted Kyoko's face by her chin. "That girl was you, Kyoko. And I swear, those times I spent with you at that clearing were the best moments in my holiday that time, no, in my whole life, even. You can't imagine how hard it was for me to part with you and go back home to California, where everyone judged and looked down on me.

"Years passed without me succeeding in convincing Dad to go back to Kyoto for vacation. And without me realizing, I was 15 already when my life completely turned from bad to worse and from worse to worst. I'm only a quarter Japanese, you see."

Kyoko held up her hand. "Before that," she whispered, afraid that her voice would fail her, "can I see your eyes?"

Understanding what she meant, Kuon got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom. A minute later he appeared again in the bedroom beside Kyoko, his eyes a pair of lush green orbs; the eyes of her fairy prince.

She suddenly drew him into a hug. "It's really you…" she whispered, her tears falling. "Corn…"

He hugged her back tightly. "Can I continue now, Kyoko?"

"It's Kyoko-chan."

"You're too old to be called using that suffix. Heck, is the suffix even that important? That a****** just call you Kyoko, and I can't do the same?"

Kyoko sighed, not being able to find any flaw in his logic. "Whatever, Corn, you can call me whatever you want."

"Really?" Kuon almost beamed at that. "Well then… Princess."

She blushed in a deep shade of red and punched his chest lightly. She felt like they were back at that clearing, where they had played and talked to their hearts' content. "Just continue already. What happened?"

"Well, you know Dad is half American-half Japanese. My mother, on the other hand, is half Russian-half American. Pretty messed up, huh? People around me started to bully me, saying that I was a mixed-blooded monster, or that I was only depending on my parents' popularity to rise in the showbiz."

"That's cruel!" Kyoko butted in suddenly. "I-I mean, how can they call you a monster? You look just like a fairy!"

Kuon only gave her a small smile as a reply. "The only one who truly cared was Rick. He was several years older than me, and lived near my house. He knew that I was bullied badly and that I just let them and stayed silent about it. He defended me a lot of times and told me repeatedly to fight for myself. Do you remember the Maui omu-rice?"

Kyoko's face completely lost its color as she remembered the huge mound of death ripper, making him chuckle. "Well, actually, the idea came from Rick. He at first brought over a chicken to my front yard one day, telling me to kill it as a symbol that I have overcome my cowardice. I kept and raised the chicken instead."

"Did you really?" Kyoko asked, laughing loudly. Her laugh sounded like bell chimes to Kuon's ears. "So what's with the omu-rice?"

"About that," he continued, scratching the back of his head, "Rick said it was fine as long as it has chicken in it, so I suggested making chicken omelet rice myself, which was worse than the one I had you taste, by the way. He then told me about asking a precious person to put on a lucky spell on the disastrous omelet rice to repel bad luck."

Kuon fell silent after that. His expression turned dark as bad memories started to flood in. Kyoko stayed quiet with him, waiting for him to say something.

"It happened some weeks after that," he started again, his voice strained. "I was cornered into a dark alley where people didn't usually pass by. The usual bullies grew in size, and they actually brought street gangs together with them. They beat me until I was down to the ground, and then I started to fight back, following Rick's advice. But something in me just snapped, and suddenly I felt enjoyment at seeing my tormentors suffering. I went mad with bloodlust.

"Rick came over shortly together with Tina, his fiancée. He tried to stop me from beating those lowlifes to death, and I started to calm down. However, one of them ran away, and the crazed monster in me urged me to chase him and beat him some more. Rick chased after me into the road, and suddenly…"

He sounded like something invisible was strangling him, and that worried Kyoko. The man who she respected – even had faith in suddenly looked like a helpless child that needed comfort. She reached for and held his trembling hands, which seemed to calm down with her touch.

"A car sped up and run into Rick, sending him whirling so far onto the road. He died instantly."

He could hear Kyoko gasped.

"I was in such a deep depression after that and became suicidal. Then the Boss came and offered me to start anew in Japan with a new identity. I just wanted to run from everything, so I came here with the Boss, leaving my parents behind, spending 4 years to learn Japanese custom to create the perfect gentleman Tsuruga Ren without contacting them."

Kuon turned his head and looked at Kyoko in the eyes with a solemn expression. "I'm a f****** murderer, Kyoko, and I can't change that however and how far I run away. I just don't deserve to be happy after I killed Rick, my mentor, my benefactor. I already saw him as a brother I never had, and I killed him."

In actuality, all that he had told her so far had shocked her beyond belief. Not only the revelation that her precious fairy prince was only a human (even though this one was taller than any normal human she knew), but also the horrible past he shouldered all by himself. In some aspects, she could relate herself to him. Both of them were severely hurt as people around them had rejected them. And they both had lost the one person dearest to them, although Kyoko's and Kuon's cases were completely different. _To think that he had suffered this much…_

"So, what that Beagle talked about that day in Karuizawa…?" Kyoko asked.

Kuon nodded reluctantly. "I still don't know how exactly he did it, as that was the first time we met, but he got me spot on."

Kyoko shook her head frantically, her hold of Kuon's hands tightening. She drew him into her embrace again. "It's not your fault, Kuon," she said with an absolute assurance although her voice was trembling as if she was crying. "It's not your fault. And I'm sorry, Corn. "

It took Kuon hours to weep all his frustrations out, and in the deepest part of his heart, he was so joyful that Kyoko did not run away from him and call him a murderer. And of course, for the fact that two hours had passed and Setsu had decided to lay low and let Kyoko take over for as long as she could stand without her brother around.

When he had calmed himself down, he found himself still in Kyoko's embrace. Not able to find anything to say after his emotional breakdown, he only said something he himself found lame. "I'll get you a new phone tomorrow. Sorry for breaking it."

"That's alright," she replied, her hands could not stop stroking Kuon's (or Cain's) silky locks. "Even though I still think that you shouldn't have done that at the first place. I know that you don't like Shotaro, but…"

Kuon scoffed. "Don't like him?" he retorted. "Kyoko, I _loathe _him. He's cocky, rude, has no respect towards other people, and the worst one, he has hurt my most precious person and treats her like a rag that he can pick up again anytime he wants."

"Eh?" Kyoko blinked. "He has? Who…?"

"You."

Kyoko's eyes widened, her expression seemed blank although it was easy to see that she did not expect his confession coming. She could hear an alarm blaring loudly in her heart.

"Kyoko, when I realized who you actually are and heard you talking about your motive for revenge against him, I really wished from my heart that I had kidnapped you and brought you home to California instead of leaving you with him, making both you and me suffer.

"It took me so long to realize it, and I have a chicken to thank for, but Kyoko, I'm deeply in l-"

Her demons screamed in her head, forcing her to look for something to distract him. "Ah, Kuon! I just remember! Yashiro-san told me that Director Konoe wanted you to come to the site earlier to shoot the scene you were supposed to do the other day."

At that moment, all chains and locks she used to lock up the box in her heart had vanished, safe one lock that was miraculously still hanging on the latch of the box, even when it was totally broken beyond repair.

* * *

Ren had never been as scared for his life as he was at the moment.

Could not stand leaving Kyoko alone to go home by herself on foot in the dark, he had decided to drive to her house, paying attention more to the sidewalks just in case she had not reached Daruma-ya. He had not seen her anywhere on the way to the restaurant, so he had parked his car at a park near the block and ran there.

And now he was faced with a very angry restaurant owner who looked more than ready to skin and fillet him alive, while the other restaurant owner, the kind middle-aged woman, was looking at both of them sheepishly as if apologizing for her husband's manner.

Ren had asked the couple whether Kyoko had reached home, and the Taisho had glared at him instantly. The Okami had been much gentler, telling him that Kyoko had been upstairs in her room for quite a while.

She also had mentioned that Kyoko had been in distraught when she had gotten home, and that had worried her and her husband a lot. And of course, because they had seen him running to their home and asking for Kyoko without any preamble, she had wondered if something had happened between him and Kyoko.

_At least she's safe_, Ren sighed inwardly. _I really want to see and comfort her, but she definitely will push me away like just now_.

He then told the Okami that he would be back tomorrow to check on Kyoko and begged her to let him upstairs to Kyoko's room in the morning.

* * *

_Even though I have worked hard to keep that that wretched box never opens, he still found ways to sneak around and open it_, Kyoko thought, still sobbing. _Even though I have denied it with all I have, the box now is attempting to open itself, how hard I try to keep it closed._

_Damn you, Tsuruga Ren._

She was suddenly reminded of the two attempts he had made to confess the 'L" word, all denied before it was even said, just because she was afraid of getting hurt for the second time after that fated day when she discover the true Sho.

And every time she stopped his confession, she always could see the hurt look on Ren's face, and that made her feel guiltier and guiltier.

_Everything's all messed up, and that is thanks to me_, she cried quietly. _He has gathered all his courage to tell me all about his biggest secrets and past, and I hurt him just because I'm being a coward. But he told Bo he loved a high school girl… Ha, what was I doing, having the nerve to think that that girl he talked about was me?_

Suddenly, her phone, the new one she got from Ren as compensation for the one he broke, rang.

* * *

**I expect myself to put the next chapter up on Monday, since I won't have time to even turn on my computer on the weekends.**

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	6. The Magic of A Friend

**Special thanks to xoxh3l3nxox, Nuricchi, ChibiDemonz, lucyluu, foureye Oniboushi, CamJ, muchachomomo, macchiato, Angiichan, and violamokona for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**Pannacotta, I'm glad you enjoyed the flasback chapter :) And thank you very much for leavesfallingup, Miz Weasley (I didn't realize at first that it was you!), and onliafaze for reviewing multiple times.**

**CamJ, after I read your review, I looked at the whole chapter and yes, you're right! I've tried to clear the issue up in this chapter, but I'm not sure if it's clear enough. Please let me know what you think and thank you for pointing that out.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters.**

* * *

Chapter 6: The Magic of a Friend

Kyoko stared at the ringing device with dread. Because of what had happened that night with the unleashed, enraged Kuon, she had been cautious with every incoming call she had received. So far, no more incoming call late at night for her, which had been a good sign of Sho not bothering her again, or the Beagle not blackmailing her (she still believed that the man might be able to get her number through supernatural forces). But still.

However, she also minded the possibility that it might be Lory who was calling her at the moment. She was now quite used to the president calling her at odd times for some LoveMe assignment. And God forbid the drama queen of the president to be denied of a phone call.

So gingerly, she picked up the phone. A so familiar voice burst out of the speaker, and a smile lit up on Kyoko's face in an instant.

* * *

_"The number you are calling cannot be reached at the moment. Please call later, or leave a message after the beep."_

Sho hung up the phone without leaving a message, puzzled at why Kyoko did not answer her phone. He had called to taunt her about being casted in his new PV, which he had planned to continue with him reminding her that it had been because of him that Kyoko got more jobs after the success of 'Prisoner' PV. In his opinion, Kyoko should have bowed to him and lavished him with endless gratitude.

And of course, he wanted to tell her and boast some about Ren being in a lower position than him, which he was sure that it will affect Kyoko's view of the tall actor.

Apparently, all those things had to be put on hold, as the intended party could not be reached, as the answering machine had told him.

Sho huffed and threw himself to sit on the bed, annoyed at his childhood friend.

_She usually answered my call immediately_,Sho thought impatiently, staring at the clock near the dressing mirror which pointed at 8.30 pm. _What the hell is she thinking, having a phone call at this time when every good kid has to go to bed already?_

_Don't tell me she's talking to that damned pinhead actor right now?! _He gasped at the sudden revelation that popped out in his head. He could imagine Kyoko talking to Ren on the phone, both having silly lovesick faces, with blushes on the cheeks and goofy grins. He groaned loudly in frustration.

In the bedroom next room, Shoko was thinking angrily about strangling Sho the next morning for disturbing her afforded sleep.

* * *

"Mo! What took you so long to answer the phone? Kyoko!"

Kyoko sighed heavily in relief, which was soon followed with a teary, goofy grin. "Moooko-saaaan! You're calling me!"

"Yes of course I'm calling you! If I'm not, then we won't be talking to each other right now! Mo!" Kotonami Kanae ranted impatiently. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, an opened script for her drama on her lap. "Putting that aside; how dare you ditch me without saying anything?!"

Silence ensued on the line.

"Eh?" Kyoko asked, not knowing what her best friend was talking about. "Ditch you?"

"Mo! Wasn't that you who yesterday forced me to get ice-cream with you after work today? And you've left me waiting for you at LoveMe room for 2 hours, without you coming or calling to cancel on me! Mo!"

It took Kyoko a good whole minute to process what Kanae had talked about before she screeched in panic, doing a dogeza while holding the phone on tightly to her ear. "I'M SO SORRY, MOKO-SAAAAAAAAANNNNN!"

Kanae huffed on the phone. "Mo! Just tell me what happened."

"Err…" Kyoko started; worried that she would get her friend angrier at her. "I had dinner with Ren-san."

The other party was gob smacked. _Kyoko… How dare you ditch me for him?_

But then she noticed something unusual. "Kyoko, since when do you go on first name basis with Tsuruga-san?"

"Well, we've been friends for quite a while, and friends always go with first name basis, right?" Kyoko reasoned feebly.

"But you still call Amamiya-san with her surname, though?" Kanae reasoned back.

Kyoko did not say anything back, and that made Kanae feel suspicious of her usually hyper friend. "Kyoko, what are you not telling me?" she asked with menace.

She could hear Kyoko squeaked. "Ah," Kyoko said, flabbergasted, "It's just that I signed on an offer together with Tsuruga-san, and it's a big project, so I kind of got excited and forgot about anything else. Please forgive me, Moko-saaaan!"

"A big project?" Kanae asked. "Don't tell me it's about Fuwa's PV?"

"Eh? How do you know?"

_So that's why_, Kanae thought, sighing in the back of her mind. _A project where she might meet that blond pig and working together with Tsuruga-san on top of that; of course that will take all of her focus. This might turn out interesting if not annoying._

"Moko-san?" Kyoko called her through the phone, snapping Kanae out of her thoughts.

"Ah, yeah," she answered. "The president called me earlier just now. He told me that they need someone to replace the actress playing the other angel, what was her name again? Nanokura? Anyway, the president told me to do that, and I'm totally free on Monday if I don't have to do sudden LoveMe assignment, so yeah, I accepted the offer. I'm going to meet with the producer tomorrow, as the president told me that they would create a new role for me to replace the old angel and the producer would need to brief me on the new character."

Kyoko's grin grew wider at the opportunity to act alongside Kanae once more. "Mookooo-saaaan!" she squealed loudly at the phone. "I'm so happyyyyy!"

"Mo! Kyoko, cut it off! Do you want to burst my ear drum?" Kanae yelled. She actually had to put her phone away from her ear to save herself. "And then? I'm definitely sure that's not the only thing bothering you."

Kanae once again met only silence from Kyoko, until she heard Kyoko mumbled, "He almost confessed to me, I think."

"What? _Who?_" Kanae asked in disbelief. _Did she just tell me that Tsuruga has almost confessed to her? What's with the 'almost' thing? Did he chicken out or did Kyoko just cut him off? I bet it was the second one. I really want to pity him, but good job, Kyoko!_

Kyoko mumbled again. "Ren-san told me a secret that I of course can't tell you, but that makes us really close, I guess? And he already insisted on me calling him by his first name while he called me with my first name. I thought it would be kind of rude to deny my senpai's order." _Moreover, I've called him with his first name since we were kids, even if I mispronounced it._

_So Kyoko_, Kanae commented quietly, but she kept herself silent to encourage Kyoko to talk more.

"And he had almost confessed to me twice, and I always stopped him before he could finish his sentence, but I think he was going to say that he _loved_ me," Kyoko continued, putting a lot of obvious disgust in her voice when she said the 'L' word.

_See, I was right_, Kanae raised one of her brows smugly.

"Moko-san, what should I do?" Kyoko whined pitifully. "I l-lo-have feelings for him as well."

Now that was unexpected for Kanae. She could feel a massive headache coming for her. "I see. So?"

"What do you mean, 'I see'?" Kyoko wailed. "Moko-san, you're so mean!"

"Look here, Kyoko," Kanae said impatiently. "He loves you, you love him, what's the problem? Just confess to each other, and become a couple. Problem solved."

"But there's no way he has that kind of feeling for me, right? I mean, I'm plain and boring and just a newbie…"

"Mo! Kyoko!" Kanae cut her off, her patience wearing thin. "You've been in the showbiz for one year and a half! And you're getting famous as well. You're not a newbie anymore! And trust me, you're not plain! …Well, I'll admit that your fashion preferences are a bit old-styled, but that can be improved."

Kyoko whimpered a bit on the phone. "But Moko-san! He likes a high school girl!"

"Did he tell you that?"

"Well, not to 'Mogami Kyoko'. He told Bo."

"And you haven't told him that you're Bo, right?"

"That's true, but…"

Kanae had to take a deep breath to calm her growing anger at her best friend at this point. "Kyoko, does Tsuruga-san have high school girls other than you in a close relationship with him enough to make him fall in love like crazy?"

"No one that I know about," Kyoko answered slowly.

"There. You just answered your own question. He clearly has feelings for you. Now that I think of it, I really want to see his face when he realized that he had confessed to the girl he likes without knowing it," Kanae laughed.

Kyoko could feel herself blushing from head to toe. "B-but… What if we get it wrong? What if he doesn't like me like what we think? I'm just so afraid he will reject me and our relationship will never be the same as what we've already had now," she stammered.

"Then that means he's not the right guy for you and the time you move on with your life," Kanae retorted. "Kyoko, you being rejected doesn't mean that the one at fault is you. It just means that you and whoever you like aren't meant to be. Or the guy's just a jerk that's so blind he can't see such a good girl like you."

Kyoko did not say anything. Kanae sighed, "Look, I know you still don't like the concept of love; hell, we're in the LoveMe section because of that, but why don't you try it out with Tsuruga-san? And if he dares to hurt you, I'll make sure he doesn't see the light of the day anymore."

Kyoko gasped. "Moko-san, you can't just do that!"

"Oh, yes, I can," Moko-san replied with definite confidence flowing from her. "It doesn't matter who he is, as long as he hurts my best friend, I won't hesitate to beat the crap out of him."

Kyoko became teary when she heard that. "Moookooo-saaaan!" she squealed. "I love you!"

"Yeah, yeah," Kanae replied, a happiness blooming in her heart. "And of course, I'll make sure to beat the daylights out of Fuwa when I meet him on Monday."

Her friend just giggled. "I'm so happy that we can work together again, Moko-san!"

"Yeah, me too. Just make sure to solve all your issues by then. I don't want to be dragged into any of them."

"Okay, Moko-san. And do you want to discuss our roles together some time before the shoot? We can get out ice cream during that."

Kanae groaned. "Now, Kyoko, don't make any promise just yet. I sure don't want to be ditched again when Tsuruga-san suddenly asks you for company."

"There's no way I'll do that again!" Kyoko exclaimed.

"Like I said, Kyoko," Kanae repeated, "don't make any promise. And the farther I am from the damned sweets, the better for me."

* * *

Kyoko had planned to confront Ren about their feelings after talking to Kanae last night and a good night's sleep while dreaming about the time when they had been carefree kids playing by the stream, forgetting about their problems.

She just had not planned for that to happen as soon as she opened her bedroom door after getting up from her futon in the morning.

Tsuruga Ren was standing by her door, already dressed in a warm black pullover and jeans. His hair was let loose in a style that somehow reminded Kyoko of Cain, but without any bed hair springing out.

Her first instinct was to not to let him see her in her faded cotton thick pajamas and with disarrayed hair, so she grabbed some of her clothes and dashed past him to the bathroom, and emerged out of it in less than a minute, properly dressed. Ren only chuckled at her antics.

"G-good morning, Ren-san," Kyoko mumbled.

"Good morning, Kyoko," he replied, smiling warmly. But then his face turned into a serious expression. "Can we talk now? In private, if possible?"

Kyoko glanced around and found the Okami peeking at them, so she dragged him into her room. She gave a silent prayer of thanks that she had tidied her futon somehow before opening her door.

Ren looked around her room. It was lacking of furniture, except the small table in the middle of the room and a wardrobe. On the wall, he found two posters of him and Sho. Firstly annoyed at why she kept a poster of the singer, he then grinned inwardly when he saw Sho's poster full of holes and darts, while his poster was pretty much safe from any assault attempt.

In any way, even the revelation that she stuck a poster of him on her wall made him hopeful.

"So?" Kyoko asked, snapping him out of his train of thoughts. "What do you want to talk about, Ren-san?"

In her mind, she was totally scared. What if he came here just to end their friendship and tell her to not associate herself with him anymore?

Ren sighed and turned to look at her. "Kyoko," he began, "I'm really sorry about yesterday."

Kyoko snapped her head up, surprised at what she just heard from her senpai's mouth.

"I knew that you were just not ready for something related to love, with the way you got hurt by that bastard," Ren said, still looking at her intently.

"I want to apologize as well," Kyoko blurted out suddenly. "I'm sorry for not letting you finish what you've wanted to say to me. I have no right to do something like that. It's completely disrespectful of me, and I'm ready for any punishment you want to give me."

"Kyoko, dammit, won't you let me finish?" Ren groaned, earning him a little squeak from Kyoko. "I've wanted to tell you for a long time that I love you, with all my heart and my soul. You've saved me from my own darkness and given light into my life, and now I'm not sure if I can live on without you.

"I know you're opposed to feelings of love, but I can't just keep my feelings for myself and stay quiet while there is a chance that that jerk will snatch you away from me."

None of them were saying anything for a while, so Ren continued. "Can't we at least try, Kyoko? Will you give me a chance? Will you give _us_ a chance?"

Kyoko was silent at her place, but then she started walking towards him. She stopped in front of him and reached her hand to touch his cheek.

"I want to finish my apology as well," she began with a wavering voice. "I'm sorry for being a coward. I was so scared that you'll hurt me after opening that box that I decided to deny both your and my feelings. And it hurts me to see you hurt because of me."

His hope flared up uncontrollably. "Kyoko," he called her. "Does that mean…?"

Kyoko gave him a genuine smile, the happiest smile she had ever had. "Yes, Ren-san, no, Kuon, I'd like to try with you by my side."

He grabbed her into his embrace and spun them around in her room, a very wide smile on his face. "Kyoko, will you be my girlfriend?" he asked.

She mumbled a 'yes' into his chest, content to be surrounded by his arms, warmth, and scent.

That was the happiest moment in both of their lives.

* * *

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	7. His Hymn of Love

**Special thanks to cdong15, Alex, Ortholeine, katsumikitsune, Violet Masen-Clearwater, nathanaelys, Sasusc, theGazettEfreak, riosaku89, kgh1010, and 4 unnamed guests for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**And thank you very much as usual for Miz Weasley, leavesfallingup, Cocloud, CamJ, Perfect Beauty, violamokona, and everyone I might miss from the list for reviewing again.**

**muchachomomo, I just LOVE your review! And it made me realize that I don't give the Demon Kyoko much justice. Perhaps next chapter?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters. But I do own the lyrics of 'True Reflection'.**

* * *

Chapter 7: His Hymn of Love

The next few days were bliss for both Kyoko and Ren, and hell for Yashiro.

Having promised Kyoko and himself to act as perfect as a gentleman regarding their new relationship, Ren had interacted with Kyoko just like usual: giving her rides, inviting her to dinner, advising her about acting when she needed it, and talking to her as he had usually done.

And that disappointed Yashiro a lot. Being an unconscious romantic, he had hoped for Ren and Kyoko to stick with each other more and show more public display of affection.

Yes, he had seen Ren and Kyoko touching each other more in public, and it was usually initiated by Ren for most of the time, but it was no more than holding hands, cupping face, circling arms around each other's shoulders (or Ren circling his arm around Kyoko's shoulders and Kyoko circling her arm around Ren's waist or torso, due to their height difference), hugging each other, or Ren kissing Kyoko's forehead, crown, or cheeks at most; nothing exceeding Cain's lavish loving adoration for his sister. That sometimes makes them easy to slip into the Heel siblings right in front the watching eyes.

Yashiro just did not know whether he had to be excited and let his inner fan girl loose every time the couple did any show of affection, or frustrated at Ren's baby steps; or, actually, Kyoko's baby steps.

_You suck, Ren_, Yashiro pouted in his head while he was sitting on Ren's passenger seat, on the way to their next appointment that day. _I always thought you were a Casanova and just held back because she wasn't your girlfriend. But you don't do anything after she became your girlfriend. You make me to totally anticipate Monday even more now, especially that kissing scene._

He smiled an evil grin on his face, making Ren feel a bit uncomfortable while he focused on the road. Heavens knew what his scheming manager was thinking, but he was pretty sure it involved him and Kyoko.

* * *

Unknown by Yashiro, Kyoko had spent more time at Ren's place compared to before. Ren had found many excuses to make Kyoko come to his apartment almost every day without angering her 'foster parents', mostly involving him not eating.

At one point this had aroused her suspicion, and Ren had to brace himself to Kyoko's umpteenth lecture about eating properly, even her calling him an idiot for skipping meals on purpose.

Tonight, Kyoko was once again moving around in Ren's kitchen, which had practically become her kitchen (as he never used it anyway), cooking the two of them dinner, while Ren was sitting on the couch, once again banished by his sweet girlfriend.

_Kyoko, my girlfriend_, he repeated it in his mind, feeling giddy when he did that. He knew it was a bit maniacal, but he just could not stop himself.

Having nothing to do while waiting for Kyoko to finish cooking, he reached for the scripts of his work the next day. But as soon as he rummaged through his scripts, his mood dropped when he saw something that reminded him of someone unpleasant.

Falling to the carpeted floor from his many scripts was his copy of Fuwa Sho's 'True Reflection', hidden and forgotten for days.

As it was already Thursday, Ren could not make himself refuse to listen to it, as it was related to the work he had to do. However, deep in his heart he was kind of scared of doing so. A lot of what-ifs swam through his mind, and he just could not afford seeing for himself whether his suspicions were true or just because of him being paranoid.

His train of thoughts was cut off by Kyoko calling him for dinner, and he decided to address this issue to her.

"Kyoko," he began, after they were already seated around his low triangular table. "It's Thursday."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that," Kyoko replied, not understanding why Ren had to mention something so trivial.

Ren gulped involuntarily. "I think we might need to listen to that CD soon. Do you want to do it after dinner?"

"Actually, Ren-san," she cut him off, "I'm just wondering if I can crash in here for tonight. Taisho has been very sick since this morning, and Okami-san was afraid that it might be contagious and I couldn't risk getting infected, so she kind of forbade me in the house."

The chance of having Kyoko spending the night here made him so elated, and he paid no effort to hide it. "Sure, Kyoko," he said, smiling. "You can always crash in the guest room; it's not used anyway."

At that moment he began wondering whether it was too fast for him to ask her to move into his apartment.

"Thanks, Ren-san," Kyoko replied with a relieved expression. They continued eating after that. Ren could not help but question where she was planning to stay if he refused to let her sleep at his place for the night.

His curiosity won, in the end, so he asked, "Kyoko, if you can't stay here, where are you planning to stay?"

"I'm not sure," she shrugged. "I might go over to Moko-san's."

Ren just shook his head in disbelief. "Kyoko, you have to contact any one of us earlier right after you were told that you couldn't go home to Daruma-ya tonight."

"I'm sorry," she murmured, staring at her food with regret. "I've been trying to contact Moko-san since this morning, but she didn't answer. You're so busy, and I somehow didn't find it right to ask…"

"Kyoko, you're my girlfriend," Ren said with pleading eyes. "And it's only natural for me to help you with anything as your boyfriend. I want you to trust me and let me worry about you some more."

Kyoko nodded timidly, still not used to the concept of being in a relationship. But she had promised herself to try, so there she was trying. Ren knew she was not ready for the next step such as kissing, and he so far had not force anything on her; she was grateful for that.

"And, about the CD?"

Kyoko frowned. "As unwilling as I am, it is undeniably necessary if we want to make this job a success. Let me finish the dishes first and change my clothes before you play it."

Ren hummed in agreement before scooping more rice into his mouth.

* * *

Kanae could not hide her growing annoyance and wrath as she listened to the CD Asami had given her.

_What's with him? _She growled in her mind. _If he is really the one writing the lyrics, this song is practically…_

Her CD player kept letting out a ballad.

_I'm trudging through the thick fog around me  
Surrounded by the mirage, I'm lost  
Oh, my body, my soul crave for you  
A sight of you, what I'm dreaming of_

_I'm a fool, so foolish all they say  
For taking you for granted  
And then you walked away  
Surrounded by a shell I don't recognize_

_I long to see your true reflection  
Uncover the you after that day you went away  
I long to touch you through that looking glass  
Making you mine and never letting go_

_I'm looking for your footprints  
Desperate to find you  
Among all illusions I see  
A touch of you, what I'm dreaming of_

_I'm a foolish, so foolish all they say  
For letting you fly away like a butterfly  
Uncatchable, ungraspable  
Drifting farther and farther from my sight_

_I long to see your true reflection  
Uncover the you in the pupa called grief  
I long to draw you into my embrace  
Comforting you and swearing my oath_

_And I long to protect you  
Keeping you safe and sound, my dear  
And I long for your forgiveness and love  
My sincere feelings, I offer you with this tune…_

* * *

Ren could not contain his anger towards the singer. This apparently was shown on his face that Kyoko blanched at the sight of it.

"R-Ren-san? What's wrong?" she asked. To be honest, she was disgusted at Sho's choice of words. In her opinion, the song was as cheesy as his other songs, but she never expected for it to light the flame of rage in her handsome boyfriend.

_As I thought_, he thought. _This song is a love song for her. How dare he declare his feelings to her in public, although in a discreet way? He hurt and let her go once; I won't ever let him take her once again._

He then looked at Kyoko's questioning face and felt a surge of relief instantly. _Thank God she's dense. If she doesn't get the meaning of this song by herself, then I don't see any need to explain it to her. It's better to let her stay in the dark, away from Fuwa… isn't it?_

Dying for his response, she called for him again. "Kuon?"

"Ah, yeah, I'm fine," he said, clearing his throat to recollect himself. "I just can't believe it to be this cheesy it makes me shiver with dread."

Kyoko raised an eyebrow. Whatever emotion she felt from him before, it certainly was not dread. But, he seemed reluctant to tell her the truth, so she chose to not question him any further, even though it hurt her that he did not want to confide in her.

Sensing her insecurities, Ren sighed. "I'm sorry, Kyoko. Listening to this song just makes me angry at that lame excuse of a man."

"Why?" she asked, confused.

_I don't want to keep things from her, but is this the right thing to do? _Ren thought. "Kyoko, what do you think of this song?"

"Eh?" Kyoko put her finger on her chin while thinking. "As you said, it's cheesy. But it perfectly emphasizes the feelings of the halfling. He is so in love with the fallen angel and wants her to realize that she is still good in the heart, even after she fell by sinning, right? As cheesy as it sounds, this song might pass as the halfling's love confession for the angel."

"Okay, supposed that the angel is really you," Ren continued, dreading what he was going to do next. "And this song is written by that a****** of a singer. What do you think?"

Kyoko was quite for a while, trying to put one and one together, and then her eyes widened in realization. "No," she gasped. "It can't be right."

"But it might be right, and that has a big chance of happening, looking at how possessive he's been towards you," Ren retorted, scrunching his nose in disgust. "Can you understand now why I'm angry?"

Kyoko did not say anything. She just held one of Ren's hands with her smaller ones and rubbed circles on its back, soothing him. She then murmured again, "But there's also a chance that he wrote this song specifically for the PV's story. Don't think too much about it, Ren-san."

He smiled a little. "Yeah, you're right."

Timidly, Kyoko leaned her head on his shoulder. Ren released his hand from her grasp and circled it around her shoulder, drawing her closer to him. She relaxed at his touch.

"And also," she mumbled, "I won't forgive him just because he wrote a song for me."

Ren chuckled and kissed her crown, nuzzling it. Slowly, he brought his face closer to her and put his forehead on hers. Kyoko stiffened as their lips got closer. He noticed that, and pulled away, still holding Kyoko in his embrace.

"Sorry," he whispered. "You're not ready for that. Sorry for scaring you."

"Ah, no…" She stammered, blushing a deep shade of red.

Ren sighed. He released Kyoko and stood up from the couch. "What time do you have to be at work tomorrow, Kyoko?"

"I have to be at location for Box-R at 10. How about you?"

"I have to pick Yashiro up at 10.30. Want me to drop you off there tomorrow?"

Kyoko fiddled with her fingers, suddenly finding the carpeted floor very interesting. "W-Well," she stuttered. "I-If you don't m-mind…"

He smiled warmly at her again. "Okay, let's do that. Better to go bed now, I think. Good night, Kyoko. Sleep well."

Before he could walk to his bedroom, Kyoko grabbed his arm and leaned herself up. She kissed him gently on his cheek. When she pulled herself back, Ren could see her blushing more deeply. "G-good night, R-Ren-san."

And she fled from the living room, leaving Ren standing there with his mouth opened in surprise. A goofy grin then spread on his face.

_Progress, progress_, he hummed happily in his head.

* * *

A woman with medium-length black hair was sitting on a recliner in a relaxed position. She was wearing a comfortable wool grey sweater and thick brown cotton pants.

She was reading the pile of documents she had in her hands when one of the papers caught her interest. She frowned when she saw two words written there.

"Mogami… Kyoko…"

Her eyes then moved to the photograph of Kyoko attached to the document.

"Golden eyes…" She murmured. "Don't tell me, this girl is…"

She sat up on the recliner and glanced towards a painting on the wall nearest to her. _Oh fate, why are thou so unpredicted?_

* * *

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	8. The Mention of Family

**Special thanks for littlehughesy, tigerdc101, Wjl, lil whit, Insena, AlmostACupcake, Chaotic Angel7, lasaints2015, anaismaxie452, haelavel, fyd818, .1, .specialist, Serenity Ma Sogni, kitten100, RaeDawnxx, freyasakura, midnightnova242, TrulyWicked365, Lithtys-chan, AnarchyMaelstrom, Autumn Amber, and several guests for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**Also, thanks again for leavesfallingup, Cocloud, cdong15, muchachomomo, Miz Weasley, Pannacotta, violamokona, and onliafaze for being my loyal reviewers. I'm really sorry for taking so long to upload this chapter. Enjoy!**

**Pannacotta: I did a review on Chapter 7 after reading your review. As much as I admit that you have a very good point, it always drove me to a writer's block whenever I want to change it. So, sorry :( But I really appreciate your opinion, thank you very much.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters. I only own my OC.**

* * *

Chapter 8: The Mention of Family

"So Kuon, why haven't you let me know that you're dating my other son now, hmm?"

Kuon blanched. "How do you know?"

"I have my confidential resources," the other end of the phone retorted.

"Let me guess," Kuon sighed. "The boss? Seriously, Dad, that's a breach of individual privacy."

"As parents, I have every right to know things that happen in my child's life. Ain't that natural?" Kuu asked. Kuon could feel his father pouted on the phone, at his home in Los Angeles.

He groaned. "Dad, for Christ's sake! I'm 21 and you're still treating me like a kid?"

"It's not about you, son," Kuu answered. "I know you're 21 already; don't you think I will ever forget your birthday, but the whole matter we're talking about involves my other son, who to my knowledge is still under 18. So? What are you guys up to now?"

"We have a shoot together on Monday for a PV."

Kuu gasped. "Don't tell me it's a PV for a singer named Fuwa Sho?"

"Did the Boss tell you that as well?" Kuon asked warily. _How much has the President told him?_

"I have my suspicion," Kuu said. "I saw her completely shocked out of her mind when she saw the news mentioning this kid, and her expression was a horrified one. And I'm really sure you were totally disgusted at the fact that you're going to be in a PV, even if you're going to do it with her. Is he that bad?"

Kuon snarled. "Worse than you can imagine. He brought her to Tokyo just to make her slave herself for his sake."

It was silent for a moment before Kuu retorted grimly, "Remind me to have a _talk_ with him when I visit Japan again. I have to let him hear a piece of my mind. By the way, your mom misses you. She's going to kill me if she knows I'm on the phone with you while she was at the studio."

The younger man smiled. "Yeah, I miss her too. Tell her I say hi and that I will work hard to go back to America for a visit as soon as possible."

"When you go back here, make sure to bring my other son with you, alright? I miss her."

Kuon hummed his okay. Kuu continued, "And her cooking," making his son groaned in agony.

* * *

That conversation happened on Saturday, right before Kyoko came for her now daily visit to Ren's apartment.

She was elated when Ren told her about a possibility of Kuu visiting Japan in the near future, horrified when he told her that Kuu had known about their relationship from Lory, and chuckled when he, with a pale face, mentioned about Kuu missing her cooking. All of those happened while she walked back and forth in the kitchen, each hand occupied with something.

Ren enjoyed the views, nonetheless. And being the foolish lovesick man he was, he found every expression of her alluring. However, he did realize the risk of doing something she was not prepared yet (like fully unleashing the Night Emperor, for example), which may include getting himself stabbed by a knife or setting the whole apartment on fire.

Kyoko's smile suddenly fell as she was reminded of something. Ren noticed this, and gingerly he lifted her face so that he could see her face to face. His heart broke when he saw her with a sad frown and tear-glistened golden orbs. He turned off the burning stove, and then hugged her, trying to comfort her from anything displeasing her.

"What's wrong, Princess?" he asked in a low voice, nuzzling her crown.

Kyoko shook her head and forced a small smile on her face. "It's nothing, Ren-san. It's just that when we talked about Fa-… K-Kuu-san, it reminded me of that acting lesson I did for him. Remember? The time when I acted the 10 years old you."

He chuckled at the memory. That time he had been shocked out of his wits when he had seen Kyoko acting like a boy that had looked too much like him, and had been surprised more when she had called him by his first name, without any suffix. When he had thought that nothing could possibly have surprised him more after all those, Kuu had had to arrive on the scene, calling her by his real name. Ren still could remember Yashiro's gob smacked face when the whole situation had unfolded in front of him.

"That time," Kyoko continued, "it was the first time for me to feel loved by 'parents', even when I did things wrong. And it made me wonder if my real father would love me like that, or what would happen if my mother actually loved me…"

Tears began falling from her eyes, and Ren hugged her tighter, keeping silent to let her pour out all her discomfort.

"Kyoko, it's alright," he whispered when she had calmed herself down even though still sniffling. "I've never met a more wonderful person than you. If your mother doesn't love you, the fault is with her, not you, Kyoko. It's her lost."

She sniffled again. "I even don't know whether I actually have a father or not. What kind of person was he?"

"Did your mother mention something about him?"

Kyoko shook her head. "She always said that he was no longer with us, so I always assume that he has passed away. But when I ponder about it again, it might not be like that. He might still be alive, but decided to leave my mother and me. And when I think about it that way, I'm always left wondering if he loved us…"

"Shh, Kyoko," Ren shushed her when she started sobbing again. "I'm sure wherever he is; he always wishes the best for you. Okay? You've been a very good girl so far, he will never hate you."

The rest of the night was spent with them holding each other, dinner forgotten for Ren's delight, although he had to pay the consequences during breakfast the next morning.

* * *

Monday had finally come, and so far, no sighting of Sho for Kyoko.

Asami officially announced the cast for 'True Reflection' PV on Friday, which included Kyoko, Ren, Kanae, and surprisingly, Uesugi Hiou. Of course, Mimori and Sho would be credited as well for some of the flashback scenes taken from 'Prisoner'.

To Yashiro's irritation, Ren and Kyoko's relationship did not progress at all (to him, at least). Ren handled Kyoko like the most important, fragile thing that needed the utmost care. It was understandable for Yashiro that Kyoko was a special case (she was in LoveMe section, afterall), but he just could not take it anymore.

Therefore, he was glad that it was Monday.

On Monday morning, he, Ren, Kyoko, and Kanae came together from LME to Queen Records with Ren's Porsche. He had insisted for Kyoko to take the passenger seat instead of the back seat, but she had persistently refused to do so in favor of Kanae. Yashiro almost could swear that he had seen the ravenette smirked in victory at Kyoko's antics.

However, when he reminded himself about what would happen during the shoot, he pacified himself enough to just went along with the actor and actresses without pouting like a child.

* * *

Without the others knowing, Kyoko's demons were holding a special meeting to anticipate meeting Sho during the shoot without provoking Ren's anger.

"But why not?" Demon B asked. "I love it when he's angry. I feel energized whenever he has that dark aura around him."

Demon C chirped in. "That's right, that's right! The angry Kuon is our savior, remember? He's the only one who can repel the Beagle."

Soon, support for the dark Kuon filled the 'meeting room', until Demon A slammed the table in exasperation. "Silence!" she shouted, and the whole room became silent. "The purpose of this meeting is to concoct a plan to kill, or at least humiliate Shotaro! Not to worship the Demon Lord!"

Demon D nodded. "Why of course! That jerk Shotaro's made Mistress suffer too much! He broke her heart!"

"He made Mistress not have any friends!" Demon E added.

"He called Mistress plain, boring girl!" Demon F said.

"He deceived Mistress and made her into a slave!"

"He stole Mistress' first kiss! Yuck!"

"The point is," Demon A butted in, "we have to make him suffer enough that he knows better than to mess with our Mistress! Any suggestion?"

Demon B stood up with a raised hand. "I propose for Mistress to be lovey-dovey with Kuon!"

All of the demons gasped in horror. Demon F choked, "Are you crazy?! You want us to get killed?!"

"Eh?"

"If Mistress is lovey-dovey with Kuon, he will become very happy that he emits those holy rays with that dangerous smile of his!"

Demon B gasped. "Oops, forgot about that," she said sheepishly. "But if she is lovey-dovey with our Lord, Mistress can show Shotaro that she's moved on and of course thought that Tsuruga Ren is a better man than him! It will definitely piss him off!"

Some demons nodded in agreement. Demon D retorted, "But if we and Mistress don't play this right, Kuon's wrath will be directed to Mistress! That's scary!"

"Okay, the point is, this approach is too risky," Demon A concluded. "Any other less dangerous suggestion?"

"Mistress should not address him in any way!" Demon C contributed. "Make him feel like an insignificant being!"

Demon E shook her head. "He'll just chase Mistress around, corner her into a quiet place, and intimidate her."

Once again, some of the demons nodded their head in agreement. Demon C was pissed off. "Then what do you propose Mistress should do?"

"Why can't we just stake him to death?" "Throw him into the sea?" "Throw darts at him?" "Strip him in front of the other crew?" "Let Natsu or Setsu toy with him?"

All ears perked at the last suggestion.

* * *

To the demons' dismay, their grand plan had to be put on hold as Sho would not come to the studio until halfway through the shoot.

Ren repeatedly glanced warily at his girlfriend. He was sure he had felt her gaped blankly for certain amount of time, when suddenly she had slipped in into another persona he was not sure who between Natsu and Setsu.

However, Kyoko came back as soon as Asami entered the room without Sho or Shoko. He sighed inwardly. _So that brat still has that much effect on her, huh? I still have a long way to go before I can completely erase him from her mind._

On the other hand, Kanae was in her own internal turmoil. She had sat herself next to Kyoko, and so far had endured herself to see her best friend and Ren interacting more familiarly with each other. Kanae at the moment honestly did not know whether she should be happy for Kyoko or extra jealous that her entire focus was directed to the tall actor.

She would not try to deny that she had been extremely happy and proud of herself that Kyoko had chosen to sit with her on the back seat of Ren's car despite Yashiro's offer for Kyoko to sit on the passenger seat next to Ren. However, once they had been taken to the meeting room by one of Queen Records' receptionist, Kyoko had been totally engrossed in her conversation with Ren, unless Kanae tried to engage her on conversations, which had been all short-lived.

Kanae was also irritated at Yashiro's attempt to talk to her. He would have always found new things to talk about, although all of their conversations were more short-lived compared to Kanae and Kyoko's talks. For her, the bespectacled man was too desperate to make her not disturb Kyoko and Ren. Of course, this was not less than an insult for Kotonami Kanae, the genius budding actress.

Therefore, like Kyoko, she was relieved when Asami entered the meeting room, although with a different reason.

Not long after Asami had settled herself on her seat, the door was knocked and opened to reveal a woman in her 40s with medium-length black hair clad in a simple cashmere thick long-sleeved, turtle-necked dress and fleece leggings. Her feet were protected with high-heeled, ankle high boots.

Behind the woman, Uesugi Hiou, Kanae's co-star in her first dramas, stood. The short middle-school actor had been casted as the halfling in his younger years for a flashback scene. His manager stood beside him, bowing politely to everyone present in the room

Asami smiled and gestured towards the three. "Now that everyone's here, I think introduction should be appropriate. But first, I want to thank you for coming here and participating in this project. I really hope we can work well together.

"As I have announced last Friday, the fallen angel will be played by Kyoko-chan." Asami smiled at her, and Kyoko got up from her chair to bow. While she was doing that, she noticed that the woman she did not recognized was looking intently at her.

Asami continued, "Her sister will be played by Kotonami Kanae-san."

Kyoko's eyes widened in excitement. _Moko-san will be my sister! Oh my goodness! I know I've heard this for thousands of times, but I could never tired of it! MOKO-SAN WILL BE MY SISTER!_ She started to drift off to her personal la-la land, amusing the others. Having known her very well, Kanae and Ren instantly knew what she was thinking about, and Kanae smirked again in victory.

Asami cleared her throat and snapped Kyoko out of her imagination. "The halfling's younger self will be played by Uesugi Hiou-kun, and the older one will be played by Tsuruga Ren-san."

The two males stood up and gave a polite bow. After they sat down, Asami gestured towards the woman. "And now, let me introduce you to Akatoki Marina-san. She's the co-owner and vice-president of Akatoki Agency, also the sister of Akatoki Agency's president. She's also the one who wrote the original story for this PV."

Akatoki Marina got up from her seat and bowed. "Pleased to meet you, I am Akatoki Marina," she introduced herself with a smile. "Firstly, let me express my utmost thank you for all of you who are present in this room right now, for your willingness to portray one of the stories I have written. I am so joyful because of it."

_Does she always talk this way?_ Kanae thought while sweatdropping, finding Marina's form of speech weird.

"I will be present all day during the shoot as an adviser for the director, to make sure that the message of the story is conveyed thoroughly. I am looking forward to working with you after lunch," Marina continued. After that she bowed once again and sat down.

Asami nodded, then said, "And I have to inform you that unfortunately, Sho can't be here until late this afternoon because he's having an interview, but that should be alright, shouldn't it?"

_I'd totally prefer him to not come at all_, Ren thought grimly, his lips were pressed into a thin line, his jaws stiffened.

"Alright, this is faster than I thought it would be, so why don't we head to the restaurant for lunch?" Asami asked while standing up. The others followed suit and got out of the meeting room.

During the ride, Kyoko grew uncomfortable as she could feel Marina staring at her. Ren, Kanae, and Yashiro noticed this, but they did not know what to say. They too felt puzzled at Marina's behavior.

After around 5 minutes had passed, Marina finally spoke up. "Kyoko-san."

"Yes?" Kyoko squeaked in surprise.

"I apologize first if this may offend you," Marina said, "but can I ask you a question?"

Kyoko blinked, completely dumbfounded. "Err… Yes, of course, Akatoki-san."

Marina tilted her head a bit, her eyes narrowed slightly. "Your real name is Mogami Kyoko, am I mistaken?"

"N-no," Kyoko answered, still dumbfounded. "That's my full name."

Marina pursed her lips together. "Are you by any chance related to a woman named Mogami Saena?"

Kyoko's heart crashed when she heard her mother's name.

* * *

**And I introduce you to Akatoki Marina, my own OC. She's going to play a major part in the story later on. I chose to name her that because: 1) Kyoko's voice actress in the anime is Inoue Marina, and 2) the name is the closest one to my name. And yes, Marina is the lady who appeared in the last part of Chapter 7. For the ones who guessed her to be Saena, I'm sorry to disappoint you guys.**

**I'm not sure about the agency Hiou is working for, but I think he will be fit for the role, so I put him in. Please correct me if he's not working for Akatoki, so I can edit it and say he's a special guest or something.**

**Writing the next chapters will be a bit hard for me from now on due to some circumstances, but I will do my best to upload more as soon as possible.**

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	9. Threads between Souls

**Special thanks for SHAJRIN, Freya's Doll, sacman, moonstar32194, Xxsturzen into phantasiexX, lalg01,RikuRoyalty, Queeniepoo16, korudo, D'cute, Paigecat, Ayako-San-GE, AimeeLadyofImladris, Kimiko'Asuka, Nai Mayonaka Kage, Sand Kitsune, SighingWinter, Aletheotaku, flaming-twilight, Mystic 777, Lady Navrednoz, and several guests for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters for the first time.**

**And thank you as always for everyone who reviewed again for the previous chapter! By the way, Chapter 195 is pretty surprising, eh? Enjoy!**

**muchachomomo: I want to express my utmost thank you for the idea :) I love you, my muse! Can't wait to read about the Chibi Demon Ren.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat!**

* * *

Chapter 9: Threads between Souls

Asami was totally taken aback when the atmosphere inside the car became dark; like the room temperature just dropped drastically.

She had known already that Marina was one who had sharp eyes for talents – that was what kept Akatoki Agency prospering enough to rival LME – and she had set her whole attention on Kyoko for some time after the cast for 'True Reflection' had been announced, but Asami had always thought that the whole thing was because Kyoko got a rather amazing talent.

Never had Asami thought that the attention Marina gave Kyoko was due to a personal relationship.

And after Marina mentioned Mogami Saena's name, the music producer could swear for herself that she saw not only Kyoko, but also Tsuruga Ren, stiffening. She shifted her gaze to the vice-president in confusion, just to be surprised to see the woman's expression grim.

After a long moment of uncomfortable silence, Kyoko stuttered, "A-Ah… Y-yes, I k-know her. S-She, she is my m-mother."

Asami noticed Ren's hand clutched Kyoko's lightly, as if he wanted to offer comfort to the teenage chestnut-haired girl. She suddenly really wanted to give a prayer of thanks to whatever being up there in the heavens that Sho was not present there, lest she would have to face the niou, or may be worse.

Once Sho crossed her mind, she could not help but wonder if the singer knew anything about what Marina and Kyoko were talking about.

Marina sighed. "So I have guessed correctly, then."

"H-how do you know h-her?" Kyoko asked, still dumbfounded over the unfolding situation. She could feel the warmth transmitted to her from Ren's hand, and she was thankful that her fairy prince was with her.

The vice-president gazed at the moving scenery of the bustling streets through the car window. "We once went to the same university. The three of us. That was when he met her, and fell completely into her clutch."

"He…?"

Marina looked at Kyoko from the corner of her eyes and smiled guiltily. Then, she turned to look at Asami. "Asami-chan, it might not be comfortable for you, but can I begin my explanation for the shoot during lunch?"

Asami did not know what to say except, "U-Uh… Sure."

"Thank you," Marina said.

* * *

"I was undeniably touched when I saw 'Prisoner' one year ago," Marina began after all of them had placed their order for lunch. The car had brought them to a restaurant with private meeting rooms near Queen Records.

Marina pulled out a tablet from her purse and operated it with light touches from her finger. "When I watched the angel turned into a fallen, I was suddenly reminded of this." She showed everyone her tablet, which was showing a picture of an angel with dark wings and a man staring at a big looking glass. But instead, their reflection showed the angel with all her heavenly glory, her wings pure white and sparkling.

"The title of this painting is 'Real Impression'," Marina continued, gazing at the picture with a fond smile. "My cousin, Uehara Kento, painted this picture and decided to give it to me as a birthday present years ago before going missing."

Marina made a sliding motion on the tablet's screen, and the picture changed into a picture of her and a tall man with short, cropped black hair, an easy smile, and to all LME employees present's astonishment, golden eyes.

Kyoko gasped. In all of her recollections of her childhood, she could not recall anyone saying that there had been any resemblance between her and her mother. In fact, there had been once people that had questioned whether or not Kyoko had been really Saena's child.

Looking at the man in the picture, smiling at the camera, his golden eyes glowing in childlike happiness, she found more resemblance between her and this man compared to her and Saena.

"This man is Kento," Marina said. "He had long aspired to be a professional artist. He always visualized bizarre things into his paintings, but never forgets the beautiful artistic aspects and the moral messages.

"But let us return to the main matter at hand first," she suddenly turned the conversation to another direction while eyeing the not less than confused Hiou, his manager, and Asami. She slid the screen back to show the picture of the painting. "I found the angel in 'Prisoner' and the angel in this painting resembling each other; and after watching the clip I was left wondering what happened after all the emotional drama. So I decided to write my own continuation of the story.

"It was by chance that my older brother read the manuscript I wrote and took an interest in it. And I was at first surprised that older brother said the story would be used in a promotion video as the sequel for 'Prisoner', and that our Sho too had taken interest when he read the story and composed his own song based on it. I felt honored."

Everyone was completely silent hearing Marina ranted away while sweat dropping. _As I thought, her way of talking is really weird. _Kanae thought. _Do people still talk like that? She spoke almost like a snobby aristocrat from some fancy old kingdom! And hell, did she really have to talk really long about how her story was chosen to be used in this PV? It's like she really wanted to brag!_

Near her, Ren had a quite different thought. _I wonder if that's really the whole story, but I don't think I can hear more. On the other hand, she might mention something else about this Uehara Kento_. He glanced at Kyoko, who was looking back at him. Her gaze told him that she was thinking about the same thing.

_This Uehara Kento-san…_ Kyoko thought. _I don't know why, but there's this nagging feeling that this man looks really familiar, that I have a relationship with him. Will it be safe for me to put my hopes up that he might be my father…? And Akatoki-san said he was missing…_

"Now, time to be serious," Marina said, breaking all of them from their train of thoughts. "The message the painting conveys, and naturally that is the same case with the story, is that we cannot simply judge other people from your take of the impression given by them. We have to try looking past their façade to see the real them. And I want all of you to make sure that the message is clearly conveyed through this promotion video. Am I understood?"

The others were dumbfounded when the vice-president suddenly turned stern. They just nodded, before the timely arrival of their lunch saved them.

* * *

Sho and Shoko were both completely irritated at each other.

His grand plan to humiliate Tsuruga Ren had had to be postponed only because of an interview, and while he was sitting on a couch in a publishing agency somewhere in Tokyo, the pre-shoot meeting in Queen Records had started. Of course, being a childish teenage boy he was, he blamed it all at Shoko.

The manager herself was fed up with all his, which she deemed inappropriate as a professional, behaviors. Sho had almost demanded her to cancel the interview in the last minute when he had realized that he would not be able to come to the shoot right from the start because of it. And when Shoko had told him that it could not be done as it had been carefully planned to accommodate his schedule and they had had no other time this compulsory interview. As the result, he had been a niou from the time they left their apartment, during the whole time of the ride to the publishing agency, and while they were waiting for the journalist to came.

To her relief, Sho was back to his normal state the second the journalist, Sanada Mikako, came into the meeting room together with a photographer. Sanada smiled sheepishly while apologizing for the wait. She sat down to a chair on the opposite side of the table, facing Sho and Shoko. The photographer stood at the corner of the table, preparing his camera.

"So let's get to it right away, Fuwa-kun," Sanada said, turning on her voice recorder. "I've been following your career pretty closely, and saying that I'm impressed will be a complete understatement!"

Sho let out a small, sincere smile. "Thank you for your compliment, Sanada-san."

"And if I'm not mistaken, your new single will be released soon, right? What's the title?" Sanada asked, showing an obvious interest.

"I named it 'True Reflection'. Actually I took inspiration for the title from a painting called 'Real Impression' the president of my agency once showed me."

Shoko and Sho could swear they saw a spark lit up in Sanada's eyes. "So, what you want to say is that you wrote this song based on that painting?"

"That's about it."

Sanada smiled, then asked, "I've never heard about this painting of yours, Fuwa-kun. Do you think you can tell me more about it?"

Sho thought in silence for a bit while, then shrugged a little and said, "To be honest, I don't know much either. I only reckon that the painting was a birthday gift for the vice-president of my agency from one of her friends, and she's totally fond of it. She even wrote a story based on that painting!"

"A story, you say?"

"Yeah, that's right. And that story is going to be used in the promotion video for 'True Reflection'."

Sanada clapped her hands together. "That sounds really nice! I can't wait to see it!"

Once again, Sho smiled sincerely. "Thank you very much, Sanada-san."

"And I gather that the lyric for the song is a retelling of your impression of the painting?" Sanada asked again, eager for more information.

Sho laughed. On the back of his head, a switch clicked. _Hey, if I play this right, I might be able to use this interview as one way to piss that two-bit actor and get Kyoko back as mine, this time for good_. "No. Sorry to disappoint you. The lyric is completely from my own feelings for a certain angel."

Sanada's ears perked. "A certain angel, huh?" she asked. "Now you're reminding me of your 'Prisoner'. Ah, of course I've heard that this PV will be a collaboration between your agency, Akatoki Agency, and LME. And I've also heard that Kyoko-chan, the one who played the angel killing your demon, will be participating. Is that true?"

"Yes, that's right."

The journalist raised one eyebrow in mischief. "You know, Fuwa-kun, I've heard some rumors that you have a special relationship with Kyoko-chan."

Sho fist-pumped mentally. _Yes! She took the bait completely! _"And what about it, Sanada-san?" he asked, struggling to contain his winning grin.

"Don't tell me the certain angel you wrote 'True Reflection' for is none other than Kyoko-chan? Are you intending this new single to be a confession for her?"

Sho could not help but give a little smirk. "More than you can imagine."

* * *

"Akatoki-san."

Marina turned around to see Kyoko standing in front of her, posture straight stiff and eyes staring at the floor. She knew what the girl was going to ask her, but she asked in reply anyway, "Yes, Kyoko-san? How may I be of your service?"

From the corner of her eyes, she could see Ren, already dressed as the halfling. He was dressed in black; a loose ripped shirt, a pair of loose leather pants, and a pair of boots. He wore a flowing straight black wig, which was ruffled to show untidiness. No accessory was used to show modesty, but in Marina's opinion, the whole aura emitted from Ren did not scream anything but sensual sexuality.

He stood not far behind Kyoko, leaning on the wall, eyeing her back with worry evident in her eyes. Marina knew instantly that the two actors were dating, and at the back of her mind, she wondered what a certain someone whose whereabouts she had not known for almost two decades would do if he found Kyoko had been courted. At that, she shifted her attention back to Kyoko. "Kyoko-san, I do believe you should have your make-up done at this moment, no?"

Kyoko fidgeted a bit. "They are doing Mo… I mean, Kanae-san's first." She lifted her face in determination. "Akatoki-san, can you please tell me more about the artist, Uehara Kento?"

"Ah, so you did not fail to notice," Marina answered in relief. "I was about to tell you right when we started talking about Saena, but there were many people with us that time. It might be uncomfortable for them and for us."

Kyoko nodded in understanding. Marina smiled sincerely.

"Let's see… If I am to describe Kento, he is…" Marina paused in thought, before simply saying, "Airheaded."

Surely Kyoko and Ren had not expected that. Their eyes widened.

Marina continued, "Kento was obsessed in painting ever since we were small. He paid a frightening amount of attention to details when he observed his surroundings, but at the same time he was completely ignorant to others. Let us say that he had lived in his own world."

Kyoko and Ren could not help but sweat dropped.

"But he was a genius enough to gain a scholarship for bachelor of art program in Tokyo. Well, that was the same case as me, but instead of paintings, I studied literature. That was when we met Saena." Marina paused again to see.

The girl's expression was a mixture of curiosity and fear from trauma. Marina sighed inwardly.

"Saena at that time was a student taking bachelor of commerce program. She was striving hard because of her economy crisis, and personally I was impressed of her. I was just distraught because there were bad rumors about her, and our personalities did not match at all.

"But Kento fell in love with her at first sight. Their relationship was one that was so complex I could not understand, but it was long-lasting, even continued after we all graduated." Marina frowned a bit. "But one day, 18 years ago on my birthday, Kento came to my house with 'Real Impression', saying it was his birthday present for me. He started talking to me, happily about the fact that Saena was pregnant with their child, and solemnly about their quarrel after that, and how he felt that Saena was not happy with him.

"That time, I was more furious to Saena than ever, because she had hurt him," Marina paused again to control her growing anger. "Kento spent the night, and disappeared the next day without saying anything. We have no contact of him until now. And when I thought about him alone, I finally really saw the painting and it somehow occurred to me that it was Kento's way to tell me that Saena was better than I thought.

"After that I tried to approach Saena, but I could not find her in her house. I called her parents, and they said that she did not go to their house. Hiring private investigators to look for her also did not help. I have given up at that point, but just four days ago, I saw a picture of a girl with striking resemblance to Kento, except for the dyed hair, with surname Mogami. Of course I thought that may be this is fate's way of work in our lives."

Kyoko and Ren were silent while they were trying to absorb everything Marina had said. The older woman waited for a few moments, and then asked, "If I may know, Kyoko-san, where have you and your mother been living since Kento left?"

"Ah, well," Kyoko stammered. "I was born in Kyoto, and had lived there for 16 years until I left to Tokyo, but…"

Ren could sense her uneasiness. He clasped one of her hands in his bigger one and rubbed circles on its back, soothing her. Kyoko looked at the smiling him from the corner of her eyes, then shifted her gaze back to Marina. "She left when I was about 6 to 8 years old, and I don't know where she is now."

Marina frowned a bit, but gave Kyoko a small, sad smile. "Is that so?"

At that moment, the make-up artists appeared and rushed Kyoko to the dressing room, leaving Ren and Marina in the hallway.

Marina glanced at Ren. "You love her, do you?"

"More than you can possibly imagine. I'm ready to sacrifice everything if it means she can be truly happy," Ren answered curtly.

The vice-president of Akatoki Agency smiled. "Tsuruga-san," she said, facing Ren fully. "I know that I have no right to say this, but she is still a family of mine. Please take care of her." And with that she bowed.

Ren smiled back to the older woman. "Why of course."

* * *

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	10. Let The Hell Begin

**Special thanks for Rain-Lin, Kumioko, Chelly18, Cookies of Doom, Cheeziswin, psycobookcollector, Thanasi, VampireKittyMeow, kiekie290, Angeline G. McFellou, Frappe-B, EnvySilence, 02du68, darkella94, TsukiNoMay, Magui Potter, Daredevil girl, cobalt eyes, Viridium, and several guests for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters for the first time.**

**And as usual, thank you for everyone who repeatedly review my story! Your support is what drives me to go on.**

**muchachomomo: That was hilarious! Love it! You definitely should write a fanfic! Yes, you can use 'True Reflection' as your setting, as long as you mention that the setting is mine. I can also beta your writing, if you need it :) And I think you should turn your PM on, it's difficult to reply your review straight away with my pace of writing at the moment (lol).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat!**

* * *

Chapter 10: Let the Hell Begin

The thing Kanae and Hiou thought at the same time when they met face to face in the studio was: _What the heck is that attire?_

As an angel, Kanae was dressed in a sleeveless long white dress with low neckline. A long blonde wig was placed on her head, concealing her ebony long locks. The make-up artists, to her irritation, had insisted on her to put on blue contact lenses and put a lace choker around her neck, making her scream inwardly in agitation.

On the other hand, the famous child actor had been made to wear a sleeveless dark grey suede shirt, loose black leather pants, and a pair of boots. His short-cropped brown hair was covered under a shoulder-length black wig that was let out to flow against his nape.

At the moment, while they were staring at each other with jaws dropped, they both thought that the other's clothes and make-up were undeniably ridiculous.

"You look like a yankee," Hiou said while trying not to blush, being a _tsundere_ he was.

Kanae with a blank look replied, "Aren't you the same?"

Marina then stepped in between the two and cleared her throat. "May I have the privilege of your attention at this moment, Kotonami-san? Uesugi-kun?"

Both of them finally turned their heads to look at the vice-president. Ren was standing behind her in amusement of their tiny banter, somehow irking Kanae.

Asami strode towards them and said, "Hiou-kun, Tsuruga-san, Marina-san, we'll begin now, if you're ready?"

"I believe we are ready," Marina answered while gesturing for Ren and Hiou to follow her.

When they had reached an empty spot of the studio, Asami looked at her clipboard and began explaining. "Alright, so the first scene we're going to take is the flashback scene. Hiou-kun, you're going to look sideway to the camera with a sad expression, and then slowly turn around to walk forward with your back facing the camera. Tsuruga-san, you will do the same later when Hiou-kun finishes. We will later loop them together with the CG we've prepared."

Hiou's eyes widened. "Just that?" he asked in disbelief. Being an infamous child actor he was, this was the first time for him to be asked to do just one simple scene and just that. "Where's the challenge in that?"

Ren could swear he heard Marina smirked beside him. "Uesugi-kun, you see," she said while bending her back to level his eyesight. "Every child wants recognition from everyone around him, do they not?"

"Err," Hiou stuttered a bit at their closeness, "yeah, that might be true, I guess?"

Marina's smile widened. "Then that is the same with the halfling. Being an orphan, he really needs a place to belong to, a home to return to, people who welcome him back. But, because he is a halfling, he does not belong to any realm, and everyone scorns him, refuses him. What will you feel if you do not have anyone to turn to because everyone hates you?"

Hiou pondered about it for a while, and then said, "Hate them back?"

Marina raised an eyebrow, clearly displeased, while Ren had to contain his chuckle. "I said, as a _child_, Uesugi-kun, not a rebellious teenager," Marina said sternly.

The child actor was silent again, closing his eyes and frowned in concentration, before saying, "Super sad? If I'm a crybaby too, I might as well cry 24/7."

That returned the smile on Marina's face. "And I want all those emotions to be shown _clearly_, Uesugi-kun, even if it will only be shown in 3 seconds, do you understand?"

Hiou's eyes widened in horror. "You want me to cry all the time during a 3-second scene?!"

"If you deem it necessary," Marina replied.

The boy scowled. He had never expected the character he had to play had to show so much sadness, because he always thought that the halfling had tough personalities from being all alone his whole life. And when he had first known that Kanae would be in the PV alongside him, he was so ecstatic to show the tough part of him. Never had he thought that he had to act a crybaby. "Damn you all," he mumbled in frustration.

"How about you, Tsuruga-san?" Marina asked. "I might as well expect that you have known what to do, mightn't I?"

When she fully looked at Ren, she was surprised to see him with a grim and bored expression on his face, like he did not care about what happened around him and how people saw him. She then realized that the man in front of her was no longer Tsuruga Ren, but the halfling that did not know about love that she had written about.

"I-I see," she stammered, still dumbfounded. _Never have I thought that I will see the halfling this soon_, Marina thought. She turned to look at Asami and nodded.

Asami nodded back. "Alright, people, places. We will begin with Hiou-kun first. Scene 2 Part 4."

"'True Reflection' Scene 2 Part 4," the assistant director repeated while clapping the clapperboard in front of the camera.

Hiou took a deep breath and stood at the center of the empty space, looking sideway at the camera. _Okay_, he thought, _I'm back to being 7 years old again, and all people hate me. I'm 7 years old and people hate me. 7 years old and they hate me._

"ACTION!" the director yelled.

In an instant, Hiou was brimming with tears. He looked sadly at the camera, and then slowly turned away from the camera and walked away.

"And… CUT!"

Hiou quickly blinked all his tears away, before walking towards Asami, Marina, and the director who were reviewing the taken scene. He noticed the vice-president frowning a bit.

"What do you think?" Hiou asked, somehow knowing the answer already.

Marina chewed the inside of her cheek. "Not enough grief," she said before Asami could say anything. "This looks fake. One more take."

Asami and Kanae who was watching from afar could only sweatdrop while Hiou did the best he could to not groan.

* * *

Kyoko entered the studio to watch Hiou facing the camera with a dejected face and tears threatening to flow from his face. It reminded her of her own expression when her mother had rejected her the times she had not gotten perfect scores in school.

_Yeah_, she thought sadly, _however hard I studied, if I didn't score a hundred, she would never acknowledge me_.

Ren chose that moment to turned around and saw a dirtied beauty with long, flowing wavy blonde wig. She was wearing the same dress she had worn in 'Prisoner'; however the staff who handled the costume had made small rips that were scattered on the dress.

She was still as lovely as ever in Ren's eyes.

He then noticed the sad expression on his girlfriend's face, and the character he had grasped as the halfling went away from him instantly. He snaked one arm around her waist when she was close enough, making Yashiro who at that moment noticed squealing inwardly in delight. "You okay, Kyoko?" Ren asked in a low voice.

Kyoko gave him a small smile and nodded. Ren smiled back. "You look stunning, by the way," he whispered again, his lips near her ear. He chuckled when she blushed.

"And… CUT!"

The couple turned to see Hiou striding towards them with an annoyed expression while Asami, Marina, and the director once again reviewed the take. "Satisfied?" he asked with a clipped tone.

"Yes," Marina answered, smiling. "This is exactly what I want."

Hiou exhaled the big breath he had held unconsciously in relief. He then walked towards Kanae and stood beside her.

"Your turn, Tsuruga-san," Asami called.

Ren released Kyoko from his light embrace and gave her a comforting squeeze on her shoulder. He took a deep breath and let the halfling came back into him while he walked to the spot Hiou had stood at before. He turned his body to look sideway to the camera, and make a bit of his memory as Kuon slip out a bit.

Immediately he could picture the people who had scorned and bullied him when he was fifteen at the place where the camera stood. Rage started to grow inside his heart, but he flinched and turned his gaze towards Kyoko.

_I can't let my rage take control now_, he thought, strengthening his resolve. _It will only disappoint her._

"'True Reflection', Scene 2 Part 5," Ren could hear the assistant director speaking loudly.

He sighed with a blank expression; the halfling had completely taken over his body.

"ACTION!"

_Don't they have any other words to call me with? _He thought. _Such a waste of my time._

He glanced at the camera with an indifferent face, and then with the same pace as Hiou had done, turned and walked away.

"And… CUT!"

The halfling immediately left him. He turned to walk towards Kyoko who was watching the reviewing of the taken scene and slipped his arm around her waist again. The girl blushed a light shade of red, which went noticed by Kanae. The ravenette glared at Ren enough to bore holes in his head if possible.

Asami and Marina exchanged glances, and Asami said, "This looks perfect. Let's move on. Kyoko-chan, it's your turn now."

Kyoko released herself from Ren's hand and went to Asami and Marina's position, still blushing. Marina gave her a knowing smirk when their eyes met.

"Kyoko-chan, in this scene, your angel is suffering," Asami explained. "You're to wander around the woods," she pointed to a set of fake dried up trees, "and lament on your sin. When you're nearing the designated point, sway your body as if you're losing all your strength and faint."

Kyoko nodded in understanding. Asami gestured for Ren to come. "Tsuruga-san, after Kyoko-chan fainted, you're to approach her like if you find a fainted stranger. Show caution in your every move."

"Also do not forget to show the halfling's indifference towards others," Marina added.

Asami continued, "And then, when you turn her around and see her face, show that you're surprised."

"And show that you are falling in love at first sight, but you just do not recognize the feeling," Marina chirped in.

The three of them were silent while looking at the oblivious vice-president.

_I thought they start to fall in love after spending some time in each other's company_,Asami thought. _Did she just make it up?_

"Can you do it, Tsuruga-san?" Marina asked, her eyes glinting with excitement and challenge for the actor.

Ren returned the challenged grin. "As you wish."

* * *

_Haha, as I've thought, now she hates me with all her might_, Kyoko thought, giggling like crazy while walking around the fake woods. _I've known it and I've prepared myself for it, but why does it still hurt?_

To everyone's shock, beads of tears started to flow out of Kyoko's eyes and down her dust-coated cheeks. And she was still giggling.

_Did I really do the right thing by killing that demon? Even though I did it to save her, did it really worth being hated by her and banished from the heavens? Oh no, I'm losing… my… strength…_

Kyoko fell down to the ground, her long golden locks covering her face. Dumbfounded, the director almost forgot to signal Ren for his entrance.

Ren wandered around the other side of the woods for a bit before going near Kyoko's position. His face was void of expression. He noticed Kyoko's limp body on the ground from afar and approached her.

Seeing a fainted woman, he sighed. _What a pain_. He walked with a slow pace towards Kyoko, pausing several times. _What if she is dangerous? I bet she's no different from those people who want me gone for the better._

But the angelic part of his heart kept nagging. He groaned inwardly. _Who cares?_ He reached Kyoko and crouched down, turning her over to her back by her shoulder. His eyes widened instantly.

In front of him was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Although her long blonde hair was tangled everywhere and covered with dirt, it still shone a golden color. Her face features were sharp yet soft, and her body shown the perfect epitome of femininity.

Unknowingly for him, he blushed. _She's breathtaking_, he thought. But then, noticing her ripped dress and unconscious state, he frowned. _What happened to her? Why is she here?_

He picked her up bridal style and brought her to his home.

* * *

_This looks better than what I've pictured before_, Asami admitted to herself while reviewing the scene. _As expected, I can't underestimate her creativity. In some sense, I understand now why people say Akatoki Marina can't be underrated._ She glanced from the corner of her eyes at Marina who was smiling in satisfaction at the monitor before turning to talk to Kyoko and Ren.

Asami looked back at the monitor and replayed the scene one more time. She paused at the part where Kyoko was giggling with tears flowing from her face. The producer frowned.

_It happened again_, she thought. _That time, I saw an angel turning into a demon with my own eyes in her. And now she has completely turned into a fallen angel who's suffering because of the weight of her sin. Her crying wasn't planned at all, but it added the emotional tension. Akatoki-san didn't even instruct her to do that._

A smile grew on her face. _She had grown into a great deal of an actress. If Sho was to act in this PV, he would lose right in the first take with her. You have to watch out, Sho._

* * *

Sanada could not believe her luck.

The original aim for the interview with Fuwa Sho was to promote his newest single, yet the singer willingly gave her a piece of information that could stir the whole media. She typed on her keyboard furiously.

Her article about Fuwa Sho shall headline the celebrity gossip section on the newspaper tomorrow morning, outlining the true meaning of 'True Reflection'.

* * *

**I am wondering if I made Hiou seem OC. What do you guys think?**

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	11. The Hell Continues

**Special thanks to Sakurawallflower, Sachiko Harada, dorkyharu, Otaku12367, Tharooday, Rui Xie Rong, Nobody Special, Sapphire Kuran, ChocoDrugs, angelface1422, ddurga74, emina15, Karmira, Fatesblackangle, Reignashii, cumeh, Stormyspiritstar, Scarlet Natsume, Sabaku no -X- Temari -X, Hiken08, AnimeXMangaAddict, knightinthenight13, Huginn et Muninn, Raynethevampire, Merlenyn, Sulix, hentai18ancilla, Aria Diamonds, and nya mayaha nya for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**And my biggest gratitude for the ones who have reviewed for almost all chapters of this story. I feel so loved. Your supports are what keep me going.**

**I made a little correction for Chapter 10. Thank you to leavesfallingup for pointing out the confusion.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters.**

**NOTE: This chapter has been edited due to some plot confusion.**

* * *

Chapter 11: The Hell Continues

_**Kyoko woke up to see a room she did not know. She was laid on a bed, her injuries treated. Confused, she sat up. A frown creased on her face.**_

**'What happened? The last thing I remembered is losing all my energy in the forest.'**_** She looked around the unfamiliar room. It was a small cabin with meager furniture made of logs; a table with one low chair and a bed she currently occupied. A fireplace was on one side of the cabin, full of little wooden logs and ready to be lit. Near the fireplace, a large battered chest made of wood and worn leather was put, supporting a candle-holder.**_

_**Sunshine shone through the opened window on the wall beside her, and she could hear the sound of birds chirping from afar, together with the sound of woods being chopped with an axe. She looked around again to find nothing personal that could tell her about the cabin's owner.**_

_**A moment later, heavy footsteps were heard and the door burst open to reveal a very tall and lean man with long black hair dressed fully in black. He gave her an indifferent glance while going into the cabin, holding wooden logs around one of his long arms.**_

_**Kyoko raised one eyebrow. '**_**Don't tell me, this guy is the one who helped me?'**

_**The man regarded her for a while after dumping his wooden logs into the fireplace, and then raised his hand to examine the cuts on her face. His eyes, although still indifferent towards her, asked a question to her. '**_**Are you okay?'**

_**In turn, she eyed him in suspicion. '**_**Who are you?'**_** His hand turned her face roughly, making her flinch. She slapped the hand away. '**_**I don't need your help, so don't bother. And how dare you touch me without my permission.'**

_**Confused, the halfling gaped at her. Kyoko glared at him with all the hatred she got. At that moment, his eyes widened, as he could see black wings sprouting from the back of the woman he had been sure was an angel. Understanding suddenly filled his mind.**_

_**She's a fallen angel. Not accepted in the heavens, or a resident of the hell.**_

**'Just like me.'**

* * *

_**Ren and Kyoko spent the next few days just like the first. He kept tending to her, while she kept refusing his help. However, she could not just leave due to the severity of her injuries, much to her irritation.**_

_**There were times that Ren felt simply aggravated of her attitudes, but some parts deep in his heart was elated as he had found someone with the similar circumstances as his.**_

_**They both just did not exactly have any place to call home.**_

_**One night, he just got back from hunting when he saw her staring at his ceiling, dazed. Her face suddenly contorted to an eerie grin full of misery, and tears flowed from her blue eyes followed by sobs that erupted from her throat.**_

_**Seeing the fallen angel crying her heart out, the angelic side of him kicked in, and before he realized what was going on, he had had her in his embrace.**_

_**The cabin was completely silent safe for her occasional sobs. He hushed her in whispers, awkwardly comforting her. This was something totally new for him.**_

_**After her sobs had ceased, she told him her story; how she murdered a demon, her best friend's lover to safe the sweet angel. In return, he told her about him being a halfling rejected by both the heaven and the hell.**_

* * *

_**The days after that were better for both of them, once they had reached an understanding of each other.**_

_**Kyoko started to be less reluctant of his help, and opened up more to him. In one occurrence, she managed to see him smile, something even him did not imagine possible. She did not know when the beginning was, but she realized that she paid attention to him more than usual, and she was eager to be near him, listening to his voice, and seeing his rare smile.**_

_**Not known to her, her expressions began to soften, and Ren was happy for her. He knew that she was better to be an angel pure from sins and worldly desires; unlike him. He could see clearly the angel in her, and he cherished her more and more.**_

_**When the thought of her falling in love with him popped out in her mind, dread suddenly filled her mind. **_**'No!'**_** She thought. '**_**I can't fall in love with him! I can't fall in love with anybody! I'm a despicable creature! There's no way he could love me! Not me! Why do I have to suddenly have a feeling such as love? It's enough for me to just hate!'**

_**Thus, Kyoko blatantly denied the fact that she might had had feelings for her savior, although she could not deny the fact that she cared for him.**_

_**On the other hand, Ren had admitted his love for the fallen angel. But remembering how people had scorned him that he was a no good that did not deserve happiness, he started wondering that it might be true. '**_**I don't have any ability to make her happy, anyway. Being with me will just make her more miserable.'**

_**He had noticed that she had started to keep her distance from him, and he could only smile sadly at this. '**_**It might be better like this. I will do anything and comply to anything as long as she's happy. Even if I have to suffer because of it.'**

* * *

"That was magnificent, you two," Marina complimented Kyoko and Ren with glowing eyes when all of them were watching the recently taken scenes. "I could feel all of the necessary emotions, although no words were spoken. I am really touched. It is really as if my story comes to life!"

Kyoko blushed and smiled sheepishly at the compliment, earning a chuckle from Ren who stood beside her.

Marina's smile grew wider at Kyoko. She walked to her and whispered, "I am sure Kento will be very proud of you if he sees this."

"I wish he could," Kyoko replied with a rueful smile. "I even don't know if he actually wanted to have me born."

"Non-sense," the older woman cut in, frowning a bit. "He was truly happy when he talked about Saena's pregnancy. He even asked me for ideas of names for his child. I am quite sure he will dote on you very much, Kyoko-san."

The two smiled at each other, not saying anything. Then Marina sighed. "I wonder where that fool is in this world."

"In a forest, conversing with fairies?" Kyoko guessed, half-joking. In an instant, she could picture the blurry image of her father painting in the middle of a lush forest, surrounded by giggling fairies. She smiled happily in her la-la land.

Marina laughed heartily at the answer. "That is a possible answer, knowing your father… Kyoko-san?"

She raised an eyebrow at the not-responding girl. Confused, she turned to Ren for answer. He only chuckled. "It's her hobby. She loves her fairy tales. You should have seen her face when our president released a swarm of glowing paper butterflies in the ballroom during the Grateful Party last year."

"I actually can imagine that," said Marina while looking at Kyoko skeptically. "What is this Grateful Party you were speaking of just now?"

"Let's just say it was a way to celebrate Maria-chan… Our president's granddaughter's birthday, which is on the 24th of December. Kyoko helped with the decoration and man-handled the first batch of the food served."

The vice-president smiled. "That is impressive. So she can cook, can't she?"

"The best chef I've ever encountered with," Ren replied with a grin, earning a smile from Marina.

Kanae, who had heard the last parts of the conversation, strode to them, cleared her throat for attention, and said, "As impressive as she is, or as best of a chef as she is, we need her now for the next scene, Tsuruga-san, Akatoki-san."

She then grabbed Kyoko on the shoulders and shook her best friend. "Mo! Kyoko! Just snap out of it already! Asami-san is calling for us!"

Kyoko came back to reality with a start. She blinked and looked at Kanae, then at Marina and Ren, and at Yashiro and Hiou who were watching from afar. They all were silent for a while, then Kyoko mumbled blankly, "Eh?"

Not long after, the situation dawned on her. She quickly lowered herself down for a dogeza. "I'M VERY SORRY, MOKO-SAAAAN! I APOLOGIZE FROM THE DEEPEST PART OF MY HEART! PLEASE PUNISH ME AS YOU SEE FIT!"

"Mo!" Kanae groaned in frustration. "Just come with me!" With that, she dragged Kyoko along towards the sweat-dropping Asami.

Marina was completely dumbfounded. She turned to Ren again for explanation. He only gave a small chuckle while scratching the back of his neck. "Err… Another one of her habits. Please don't mind it."

* * *

_**Worry did not exactly describe Kanae's feelings at the moment.**_

_**Her beloved little sister, her only family, Kyoko, was banished from the heavens because she killed someone. Personally, she could not believe that her gentle sister could have done such a thing. However, her heart had broken when she had seen Kyoko's evil expression during her judgment by the archangels.**_

_**Things happened, but she could not help but worried for her sister. So, she decided to descend to the earth to convince Kyoko to atone for her sins and come back to the heavens with her. When they finally met, Kanae was beyond relief when she saw her sister almost back to her old personality from behind a tree. But worry soon came back to her when she saw Kyoko close to a halfling man.**_

_**Because in the heavens, the one thing considered worse than the demons were the results of union between angels and demons.**_

_**And there was no way Kanae would let her sister close to a tainted creature such as this man.**_

* * *

Asami and Marina could not help but frown at the scene. They felt something was missing, but just did not know what.

Kanae and Kyoko became slightly uneasy at the two's silence, because as a lot of people said, silence usually meant trouble. The best friends flinched nervously when Marina blinked her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, still frowning in concentration, looking for things that might improve the empty feeling the scene gave out.

"To be frank," Asami broke the silence, "I just don't know what's wrong with this scene. It looks good, really, but I just feel that something's missing from here. But what?"

She replayed the scene once again, paying undivided attention to every second of it. All the crews, including the actors and Marina, did the same.

Something dawned at Hiou. "I think I know what's wrong," he said, gaining everyone's attention. He then turned to face Kanae before clearing his throat. "Well, first, no offense to you, Kanae, but the last part of the scene lacks the appropriate expression."

Silence once again filled the whole studio as all people tried to digest what Hiou had said. Asami and Marina looked at each other, and then turned back to watch the part Hiou mentioned. Marina gasped in understanding.

"He is correct," she said. "For someone finding her only family associating with another person she considered abominable, she did not show enough worry. Or should I say, there is no hint of other mixing emotions in the dominating worry."

"So, you want to say that it's pretty monotone?" Asami concluded.

Marina nodded her head in agreement before looking at Kanae intently. "Kotonami-san," she began. "I would like you to redo this scene one more time. You only have your sister in this world, and another person wants to take her away from you. And you know that this person is dangerous from the moment you lay eyes on him. How will you feel?"

_Mo! How should I know?! _Kanae screamed inwardly in frustration. _None of my siblings have a relationship like that with other people! On top of that, I don't want to be dragged into their problems! They always give me headache whenever I let them._

Sensing Kanae's confusion, Hiou sighed. He grabbed Kanae's hand and dragged her to a quiet corner of the studio. Once there, he released her hand and looked up (literally, since he was still shorter than Kanae) at her intently.

Before Kanae could say anything, Hiou spoke first. "Let me guess. You don't know what Akatoki-san was talking about because you can't reflect it from your family life, do you?"

She felt like a giant arrow stabbed precisely into her heart. Kanae slumped down in defeat and frustration. "How did you know?" she mumbled.

The child actor scoffed. "Did you forget? I stayed over at your house once, and you literally dragged me and that black demon over there," he gestured towards Kyoko who was glancing at them worriedly, "to your secret 'base' at your house, trying to avoid almost everybody in your house."

Kanae did not say anything, making Hiou sighed heavily. He scratched the back of his head. "Well, I'm not in any position to give you any advice on how to interact like close siblings, since you know I'm an only child, but…"

He was suddenly reminded of something. He continued, "You see, I once asked a classmate of mine about his brother, and while he at first complained a lot about how he was bullied by the older brother, they were actually pretty close. He even said that his brother was his best, closest friend he got.

"So maybe, instead of forcing yourself to think of how to act as people with familial relationship, why don't you think of Black Demon as your best friend? No, scratch that; you're already best friends, right?" Hiou grinned at her.

Kanae's eyes widened. _That's right_, she thought. _If we're really close as sisters, then we can share everything like best friends would._ She glanced at Kyoko. _She's my first and best friend, and I will hate it if she's unhappy. I don't want to lose her, especially to him!_ She glared at Ren who was standing next to Kyoko, not noticing the menacing intent of her glare.

"Whoa! Whoa! That's a _really_ scary face you have there, Kanae," Hiou exclaimed, probing his pointer finger between the creases of her deep frown. "What the heck got into you?"

Kanae was dumbfounded. "Eh?" she mumbled. "Aren't I supposed to not want to have my sister taken away?"

Hiou sighed heavily again. "Okay, you got the jealousy part right, at least," he said. "But that's not the main event of the plot, right? Remember, you don't know exactly what their relationship is, but you do know that there's a possibility that your sister, or best friend, whatever, can get killed by associating with that person. What would you feel?"

Understanding dawned on Kanae. Hiou looked intently at Kanae's face, and then smirked in victory.

Kotonami Kanae was no longer who was sitting on the floor in front of him.

* * *

_**Once she landed on earth, Kanae immediately went to search for her fallen sister with only one thing in her mind. '**_**I want to meet her. I want to be close to her. I don't know what happened that time that led her to do the crime, but she's still my sister and I believe in her.'**

_**She strode through the forest swiftly and gracefully as if she was flying – actually, after the CG was added, she would indeed be seen flying through the dark forest – not really paying attention on how her surroundings looked so dead.**_

_**Kanae stopped when she caught a glimpse of flowing blonde hair. She quickly hid behind the nearest tree and was overjoyed when she saw Kyoko, her sister. The fallen angel no longer wore the white angelic dress she had worn when she had been banished from the heavens; instead she wore a simple, modest dress which covered almost all parts of her body, including her slender neck. Kyoko looked healthy and well-fed, and Kanae could see a smile, albeit small, on her face. A big relieved smile spread across Kanae's own, and her eyes were glistened with unshed happy tears.**_

_**She longed to reach for Kyoko, telling her that she would be there for her. Kanae moved her feet to reveal herself in front of Kyoko, and that was when she saw him.**_

_**Standing close to Kyoko was a very tall man with a menacing body structure clad all in his black glory. He would easily pass for an undeniably strong human with an indescribable unearthly aura and absolute good-look, if Kanae had not noticed his grey wings. Her face instantly contorted in pure horror and panic.**_

_**She quickly knew that the man was a halfling, creature condemned from the both sides of the afterlife, and that her sister was in a big trouble. The one thing Kanae was sure of was she was not going to let Kyoko get taken away from her, especially by this dangerous creature.**_

* * *

Shoko had not stopped glaring at her blonde charge since the moment he hinted grandly about his 'relationship' with Kyoko to Sanada during the interview. At the moment, they were sitting silently in the car, going through the busy traffic towards Queen Records.

Not able to stomach the pressuring silence, Sho groaned in frustration, "Just what the **** is your problem, Shoko?"

Shoko could feel one vein located just above her eyebrow twitched. "What's my problem?" she paraphrased Sho's question before scoffing as if he was uttering an unbelievable joke. "What's _your_ problem? Do you really have to relay implicitly to Sanada-san about you and Kyoko?"

"What? Don't tell me, you're jealous?" Sho smirked.

The manager glared at him in disgust. "This is completely getting out of hand, Sho," she hissed. "Knowing that journalist, she will definitely make sure that your _connection_ to Kyoko will be the main heading for the gossip column of the newspaper first thing tomorrow morning, and you know it can ruin her reputation depending on the way she writes the article."

"Yeah, so?" Sho asked, rolling his eyes in disinterest. Actually, that was what he was kind of hoping for. He was sure that when Kyoko read the article – of course, if she ever read a gossip column at all, which Sho kind of doubt knowing her – she would be enraged enough for him to occupy her entire mind and for her to not be able to think about anything else but him, including his biggest, most dangerous actor rival.

"The problem here is not only Kyoko, Sho," Shoko continued exasperatedly. "We're trying to mend back a good relationship with LME here with this PV project, and everyone knows that LME doesn't react well to bad rumors about talents under their wings! This can ruin our attempt to have a friendly and supportive relationship with them! And you do know that our president and vice-president _absolutely_ hate their employees causing trouble!"

Sho could not care less about the situation ahead. What he cared about was how sweet victory was against Tsuruga Ren.

Little did he know that his personal hell was just about to begin.

* * *

**This chapter kind of serves as a filler, but something nagged me to write something about Kanae's "lack of familial love". And I absolutely love Kanae x Hiou pairing (although in common sense and personal opinion it might seem pedophilic). The big conflict starts next chapter, so stay tuned!**

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	12. Reminder of Her Oath

**Special thanks to sShadow, yokonoko, chocolaty, AquaMiko808, Ciralda, brittegan256, theelfprincessnazari, gina-o, Mel Melly Melt, xcandyxanimexloverx, Sillyfox777, BlackStarrs, Nemesia23, Grey Chaos, haojie1992, Ionized, Hawttcakeyz, Assassin Lin, Shouen, butterflywings27, Kaname, morganlep, CrescentMelody, apple abs, jaahkms, Terri Currents, babyblu12, and several guests for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**Not forgetting the ones who reviewed again and again. Love you, guys!**

**In case there are readers who are confused with the PV's story, Kanae's angel and Mimori's angel are not the same! Kanae's angel was created by Marina in the last minute because Mimori refused to reprise her role as the best friend who lost her demon. Hope that clears the confusion :)**

**muchachomomo: Actually, they already haunted my dreams every night, demanding me to finish up the story. But as the result, I hit the writer's block several times. So better to not send them to me (lol).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters. And some dialogues were taken straight away from Chapter 191.**

* * *

Chapter 12: Reminder of Her Oath

Ren had to contain his amusement when Kanae blatantly stayed as far away as possible from him during the briefing for the next scene. Ever since she had portrayed her angel in a fabulous way that even the perfectionist Marina had lavished her with praises and happy sniffles as a mother would have done to her children's accomplishments, Kanae had been acting that way.

She would steer the confused yet elated Kyoko from him whenever she saw the couple standing close to each other, while giving him a glare mixed with caution, fear, jealousy, over-protectiveness, and a little bit of disdain.

He quickly figured that she was completely immersed in her character and right now he was the most dangerous person existing in her universe – that in particular revolved around her little sister. He cringed inwardly, knowing that _that_ was exactly the way he had imagined the long-haired girl to act around him as soon as she knew that he and Kyoko were an item.

Ren shifted his eyes to have a glance at his manager, although he regretted it instantly. Yashiro was standing at the side, completely alone and ignored, with an evil smirk directed at him. The tall actor groaned silently; knowing the bespectacled man, the eerie smile must be about the soon upcoming climax scene of him and Kyoko.

If he had the chance to be completely himself – being Hizuri Kuon, of course – Ren would admit himself that he was happily anticipating the kissing scene with his beloved girlfriend. He knew that if they did not fake the kiss, it would be their first kiss, her _real _first kiss, and he was glad that she got to do it with him and not anyone else.

Reluctantly, a memory of seeing Kyoko being forcefully kissed by his nemesis surged in Ren's mind. He frowned in disdain as pure rage started to blossom in his heart.

"Tsuruga-san, Kotonami-san."

His train of thoughts was snapped off, and Ren brought his focus again to the producer. The voluptuous woman was in the middle of explaining the scene of the encounter between the halfling and the older angel.

"So in this scene, the older angel will confront the halfling, and tell him about the ritual. Kotonami-san, you just have to use gestures to make an explanation, because the details of the ritual will be added using CG. And in the end, you have to ask the halfling of his choice."

Kanae nodded her head in understanding, while once in a while eyeing Ren warily.

Asami nodded back. "And Tsuruga-san, while Kotonami-san is doing her gestures, show that you're surprised to see her and hear about the ritual, and then a determination to make the angel you fall in love with happy."

"I understand," Ren replied curtly. He then glanced at Marina to see if she wanted to add some more details to the scene, but this time the woman decided to stay silent while looking back at him and Kanae in confidence, as if she was sure that the actors would show elaborate emotions in the scene to her satisfaction.

"Then let's begin."

* * *

_**Once Kanae was sure that Ren was alone without Kyoko in the vicinity, she reluctantly walked towards him out from the woods with wary steps. Noticing footsteps from behind him, Ren turned around and to his surprise saw a pure angel in front of him.**_

_**Kanae gestured. 'I'm Kyoko's older sister.'**_(In the back of her mind, the real Kanae wondered if Ren would understand her gesture – after all, they did not use the appropriate hand language used for handicapped people – but she could bother less. Ren seemed to understand, though, because after Kanae finished her gesture, his eyes widened in surprise).

_**After that, while masking her disgust towards the halfling in front of him, Kanae reached for Ren's forehead and placed a tip of her finger on it for a while. Ren was confused at first, but realization soon hit him. When she began to retract her finger, his expression changed to one that showed internal conflict, as if he was told something life-changing.**_

_**Kanae gestured again. 'What's your choice?"**_

_**Ren's hands clenched into fists. When he lifted his head to meet Kanae's gaze, he was clearly determined. 'You know my answer.'**_

* * *

_**Kyoko's reaction, however, was something that did not go as Ren had expected.**_

_**While the halfling had gone back to their home – as he had happily called his cottage privately ever since he had fallen in love with the fallen angel – to tell her about the ritual, which he decided would be used to revert him into a pure demon and her back into an untainted angel, she did not show any joy whatsoever. Instead, to Ren's surprise, a hurt look came across her face.**_

_**The only thing that she could think of was, 'See? There's no way he can possibly love me. He just wants to get rid of me as soon as possible. This is my punishment for having the slightest bit of love for him and hoping that he actually loved me back.'**_

* * *

To everyone's surprise for the umpteenth time, tears once again threatened to fall down from Kyoko's eyes. Unable to stomach his beloved looking hurt like that, Ren instinctively hugged her tight to comfort her, the halfling persona completely thrown away.

Asami rose from her seat to signal the director to cut the scene, but Marina immediately raised her hand to stop the producer. Asami turned to Marina to protest, but stiffened when she saw Marina's eyes brimmed with her own tears. Nearby the older women, Yashiro had to struggle hard to contain his squeal, while Hiou sweat-dropped seeing Kanae's face contorted with unexplainable jealousy.

Unnoticed by all the crews and actors present in the studio, a certain singer's and manager's jaws dropped when they entered the studio to saw the scene. On the next second, Sho could only see red, especially when he saw that Kyoko actually enjoyed the embrace of the tall actor.

After about 5 seconds, Marina nodded to Asami, who in turn signaled the director. "And… CUT!"

Ren slowly released Kyoko from the confine of his strong arms. He wiped her already falling tears and looked at her with worry in his eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," Kyoko murmured, failing to sound strong as she tried to regain control over her own emotions. "It's just… I don't know. It was like you telling me that you don't want to have me around you anymore and…"

Ren wrapped one of his arms around Kyoko's waist and grasped her right hand, rubbing circles on the back of it. "It reminded you of that bastard," he growled.

It was not a question. Kyoko nodded, and was glad that her boyfriend completely understood her even when words failed her. Ren pressed his mouth atop her crown, trying to offer as much comfort as possible. His eyes glided towards their spectators to see their reaction towards the scene, and that was when he saw the man who he deemed was the source of all his problems.

Sho strode angrily towards them, surprising all of the crews, including Shoko and Asami, and yanked Kyoko away from Ren and out of the studio, leaving everyone speechless. Ren – or Kuon, to be exact – narrowed his eyes in anger.

* * *

"What in the world do you think you're doing, idiot?" Sho hissed in about the same amount of anger as Kuon's. "You're turning – no, you _have_ turned into a complete moron, haven't you?"

Kyoko was completely dumbfounded. She was in the middle of composing herself back from the angel's emotional breakdown and her mind was completely blank when Sho had yanked her from Ren's comforting embrace. At the time she had gotten a grasp of the entire situation, she found herself in an empty hallway far away from the studio and cornered to a wall by Sho.

Her demons were just elated to see a chance to execute their initial plan to humiliate the singer. Kyoko stared at him coolly, as if he was an insignificant being. "And what do you think you're doing yourself?" she asked monotonously. "You're disrupting the shoot."

"Damn the shoot, Kyoko. Just how can you let him ogle you like that?" Sho growled impatiently.

Kyoko scoffed. "In case you didn't realize, Pig Head, we were in the middle of shooting a scene. But of course, it was only idiots like you who can't look at the whole situation to discern that."

Sho cursed quietly. "I know for a fact that _that_ wasn't completely acting, Kyoko."

"Care to elaborate?"

"You looked at him as if… As if…" he stammered, "As if you were truly in love with him!"

At that exact moment, Kyoko was really tempted to tell him that he was right.

"What happened with 'I don't feel anything about Tsuruga-san'?" Sho continued, eyeing Kyoko in disdain. "Also, what about, 'I don't want to turn into an idiot again, and I'm not going to'? Turning into an idiot, that's exactly what I saw you were doing."

Setsuka's hold on Kyoko was almost loose as rage began to consume the actress. The horrid memory of what had happened months ago came back to her like a horrible tsunami.

Sho scoffed in victory. "Admit it, Kyoko. You've lost."

"I haven't," Kyoko retorted back, glaring at him.

A smirk grew on Sho's face. "No, Kyoko. You just ate your oath back. We can't have that, can we?"

* * *

Worried for Kyoko and annoyed beyond words by Sho, Ren had decided to go outside for fresh air to calm his nerves down. Marina, to his surprise, had asked to join him in the brief break. They had decided to grab some coffee and sit down.

"You seem very annoyed," Marina stated after blowing at her coffee to cool it down. "You hate our Fuwa-kun, don't you?"

Ren looked at Marina from the corner of his eyes. "No offense, though, but yes."

"None taken. Did he do something that offended you?" she asked with a small smile. It was clear to Ren that the older woman was unbelievably amused by the situation.

Ren chewed the inside of his cheeks while focusing his gaze on his coffee. "More than to me, it's more to a person I considered precious."

"I see," Marina mumbled, sipping her coffee carefully. "So it is connected to Kyoko-san."

"How do you know it's Kyoko?" Ren asked in disbelief.

Marina chuckled. "It is not as difficult as it seems. Everyone can read you like an open book, Tsuruga-san, especially regarding you and Kyoko-san. So? What did he do?"

He was silent for a while, considering whether he could just tell Marina everything about Kyoko's past. The vice-president waited patiently, blowing at and sipping her coffee. After a while, Ren spoke, "You do know that Fuwa comes from Kyoto, right?"

"It was in his application," Marina replied. Then realization hit her. Her head whipped around to look at the tall man. "They have a connection?"

"They're childhood friends," Ren answered dryly. "She lived with his family until she came to Tokyo almost two years ago together with Fuwa."

Marina frowned. "What happened to Saena, then?"

"No one knows," he sighed, leaning his back against the wall. "Kyoko said that her mother left her. I'm not really sure about the details, though. And it's not really my place to tell you, actually. I'm breaching her privacy."

"I understand," she murmured. "I will send some people to investigate this matter. And? The matter with Fuwa-kun?"

"Ah, yes, the story's not over. Kyoko said that he used her as a stepping stone, making her work three jobs to pay the rent. She couldn't even go to school. And one day he just tossed her away."

Marina's frown deepened, but she nodded in understanding. "So you hate him because he hurt Kyoko-san."

"Not exactly," he said. "What I actually hate of him is the fact that he now wants her back, and he's confident that it will happen sooner or later."

They were silent for a while. Marina then stood up and threw her empty cup into the trash bin. "We should go back."

Ren nodded and stood up, tossing his cup into the same bin. As they were walking back to the studio, Marina asked, "Does Kyoko-san want to be back together with Fuwa-kun?"

"She holds a grudge against him, so the answer is mostly no."

"Mostly?" Marina raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Ren sighed in exasperation. "I don't know. The other thing about Fuwa that annoys me is that he has this effect on her that easily fills her mind with the thoughts of him. They have this special connection that no one can break."

"That is what it means by being close from childhood," Marina added. "They understand each other more than other people do, especially if they live together. But then, in Kyoko-san's case, what she needs is just someone to help her look at the positive side of the incident, and from what I have seen up to this moment, you have done a great job."

He could not help but smile at her. "It's kind of strange when I think about it. We've just met not more than half a day and I'm confessing all my personal worries to you."

"Because it is related to my precious family," Marina said, smiling gently. "But then, a lot of people have told me that I have this unexplainable aura that makes them comfortable to confide their secrets to me. It must be my innate talent."

The two of them laughed heartily. Suddenly, they could hear people talking.

"What happened with 'I don't feel anything about Tsuruga-san'? Also, what about, 'I don't want to turn into an idiot again, and I'm not going to'? Turning into an idiot, that's exactly what I saw you were doing. Admit it, Kyoko, you've lost."

Rage immediately went back to Ren's system. He clenched his fists to rein it. He just could not lose control now.

After that, he heard Kyoko's voice. "I haven't."

Sho's voice was heard again. "No, Kyoko. You just ate your oath back. We can't have that, can we?"

Ren just had enough. He almost bolted his way off to them with the determination to strangle the blonde singer, but Kyoko spoke, her voice determined while trembling with rage.

"Ah, I remember that I also said that even if I had to be an idiot once more, it won't be for Ren. And that's what's happening. He'll never let me become an idiot even when I'm in love with him. You know why? Because he teaches me to prioritize myself, and he respects my choices, unlike you. You're egoist and spoiled, and the idiot me back then was so desperate to have someone loving me that I sacrificed everything, and you didn't even care if I risked my well-being when that means you got what you wanted.

"I haven't lost, Shotaro, because I haven't turned into a lovesick idiot like what I used to be."

Joy quickly blossomed in Ren's heart, replacing the growing flame of rage. Marina smiled proudly at Kyoko's answer, and decided to interfere with the two before Sho could retort back.

"What is happening here, if I may know?" she asked. "I believe Kyoko-san is needed in the studio immediately for the next scene."

Kyoko smiled at Marina, mouthing a silent, grateful 'thank you', while Sho was flustered. Kyoko quickly strode to Ren who waited for her with open arms, and they walked back to the studio, leaving Marina and Sho in the hallway.

"Fuwa-kun," Marina began. "While I do realize that this project focuses on you, your behavior just now was unacceptable. It is not professional, and it disrupted the whole schedule of the shoot. I expect you to behave better starting from this exact moment."

Sho gulped audibly when his boss eyed him with a narrow glare.

* * *

**I am not sure myself if I am satisfied with this chapter. My mind was completely blank when I typed. Please let me know what you think of this chapter.**

**And I will be going on vacation for 2 weeks, so I will just give an early Christmas and New Year greetings to all of you :) Please take care of me next year, too!**

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	13. What She's Been Dreaming Of

**I'm back from Middle-Earth! Lol, just kidding. But if you get what I mean, you will know where my vacation was.**

**Special thanks for SethanaPriyanka, Shanblue, SweetNothings528, XxShiexX, Animefreak5253, Wren-lee, toughestcookie, Lostlily, Velvet-Tales, eteeuw, Sandric, chiimurasaki, 1blackcat3, kurenaimegami, MonseHunter05, Kawaiigrlmari, Alia Inverse, LoverofRomance, Luna the Living Moon, Lila Nightengale, crizzie4u, and mitsuki5cat4chan3 for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**And of course for you who reviewed again and again! I read Chapter 196 this morning and I laughed heartily at Kyoko's first handiwork at Ren's neck!**

**muchachomomo: Whew, so those demons were actually from you? I never expected that you would send them so soon... Thanks for not sending them this time (lol), but you can send them any other time if you want to :p (I'm contradicting myself, I know)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat!**

* * *

Chapter 13: What She's Been Dreaming Of

Shoko was beyond relief when he found Ren and Kyoko with wide smiles adorning their faces, soon followed by Sho and Marina who kindly greeted her. For once after a while, Sho was actually behaving well. She could not help but noticing her boss' eyes almost always on her charge, but as long as he caused no problem, she could care less.

However, the peace did not last long, much to Shoko's disappointment. And it all started with the briefing for the climax scene.

The atmosphere was tense when Sho decided to join in to listen to Asami's direction for the actors and crews. Although Ren and Kanae had to admire his motivation to be involved actively in his work, his mere presence irritated them. As much as they wanted to glare at the blonde singer, they had no choice but to struggle to stiffle their laughter of amusement when they saw Sho cowered under Marina's eagle eyes.

"So this is the climax of the story," Asami began. "Kyoko-chan and Tsuruga-san will be holding hands here," she pointed at a marked patch on the fake soil, "And Kotonami-san will be standing between them, but from quite a distance to instruct the halfling on the ritual. After that, the fallen angel and the halfling turn into a pure angel and a true demon respectively, and when I give you the signal, Kotonami-san will grab Kyoko-chan by the waist firmly and we will lift you up as if you're ascending to heaven.

"When I give another signal, Kyoko-chan will break free from Kotonami-san and glided down back to Tsuruga-san for the love confession and kiss..."

"The WHAT?!"

Everyone turned their eyes to Sho, who looked as if he had absolutely no idea of the story.

Asami, a bit taken aback by Sho's sudden outburst, repeated herself slowly and carefully, "The love confession by the fallen angel and the kiss between her and the halfling, Sho. That's the climax of the story."

Sho's face quickly changed to that of Deva Mode, making Asami sigh internally and Shoko pray silently to whatever deity listening to her pleas. "How come no one never informed me of this?" he asked, rage clear in his voice.

"What do you mean you do not have any knowledge of this?" Marina asked back, frowning in confusion. "I am sure you have read the story I wrote. My brother clearly told me that you took a liking to the story and used it as the isnpiration for the song."

The blonde was totally confused. "What? The president only showed me a painting of two people in front of a mirror, that was all."

Marina's frown deepened. Everyone could see that she was terribly displeased and somehow, Shoko got a premonition that Akatoki Seijuro, the president of Akatoki Agency, would have it bad pretty soon.

Asami cleared her throat. "Okay, so for the kissing scene... We will take it from the diagonal back side of Tsuruga-san's head, so you can fake the kiss. After that, they slowly fade away and Kotonami-san ascends to the heavens alone. Any question?"

Sho was about to open his mouth when Marina sent him another silencing glare.

"Good. Then let's begin."

* * *

_**Kyoko, broken-hearted, could only watch helplessly as Ren held both of her hands firmly in his bigger ones and chanted spells as accurately as Kanae instructed him.**_

_**'Soon, my love', he thought, giving Kyoko an unnoticed small grim smile, 'soon you'll be back to the heavens, back to your family and friends, and you'll be happy'.**_

In their mind, they could see a glowing circle from the ground beneath them, and for good seconds Ren could swear that he could see black wings on Kyoko's back, slowly but steadily turning sparkling pure white.

_**Kanae's smile grew wider. Soon she would have her sister back.**_

_**After a few more seconds, Ren's grip on Kyoko's hand tightened. Kyoko lifted her face to see Ren smiling sadly at her. Her eyes widened in surprise.**_

Kanae saw Asami raising her hand as a signal, and she quickly grabbed Kyoko by the waist before being lifted up by the props staff. Kyoko and Ren reached to each other, but it was futile as Kanae and Kyoko kept going further up.

_**To Kyoko's horror, she could see Ren's body breaking down, crumbling into dusts. 'No! I haven't told him! If I don't tell him now, I will regret it for the rest of my existence, and I sure don't want to lose him!'**_

Coherrent thoughts seemed to have left Kyoko as she pried herself off Kanae's embrace with tears flowing from her blue orbs down her cheek. She glided down back to Ren's direction, but suddenly she was brought back harshly to reality.

She heard something on her back snapped, and a second after that she was falling freely to the ground.

* * *

"CUT!" Marina screamed in horror. "KYOKO-SAN!"

The halfling once again left Ren as he ran as fast as he could to catch Kyoko. To his, and everyone's relief, he managed to catch her in time. Both of them were panting when they looked at each other's eyes, and Kyoko broke down in sobs almost instantly in Ren's embrace.

The props staff quickly lowered Kanae down to the ground and released her from the confine of wires before letting her run towards her best friend. Marina and Asami were already scrouching beside Ren, trying to coax him to release Kyoko so that they could check on her. Yashiro, on the other hand, was rather calm. He quickly put his latex gloves on and called an ambulance.

Sho was struck dumb like a deer staring at a headlight. He obviously knew that doing a stunt such as what Kyoko and Kanae had been doing was rather dangerous, but he never had imagined an accident would have happened in something related to his work. He now realized that he had taken the almost constant safety he had had so far for granted.

5 minutes later, paramedics came storming into the studio and quickly attended to Kyoko.

* * *

"I just can't understand what happened," Asami said, looking frustrated. "The staff has checked the props thoroughly and repeatedly, and they found no anomally. And the wires were in perfect condition. How come it suddenly snapped like that?"

All the crews, actors, and Yashiro were gathering in the meeting room. Because of the incident, Asami had postponed the shoot for the next scenes for safety reasons. Kyoko did not have any injuries thanks to Ren, but was still shaken up by the incident.

Everyone in the room was silent, unable to find any logical possible answer to the predicament. Asami sighed. "I think we have to postpone the remainder of the shoot. At least until we're sure everything is safe."

"No!" Kyoko said with a raised voice, making everyone turned their heads to her. "I can't let the whole thing get delayed just because of me."

Sho looked at Kyoko as if she was crazy.

"But Kyoko-san," Marina murmured steadily, "we can't let that kind of incident happen again, and I'm sure you'll want to rest, right?"

The young actress smiled brightly at Marina. "If that's the case, then that's not a problem. I'm perfectly fine and ready to go! And I'm sure that the staff will ensure that it's safer than before. Right?"

Ren was about to say something with a worried look on his face, but before he was able to say something, he was quickly silenced by Kyoko's determined face. He let out a sigh while looking at her with a smile. He knew he was not supposed to, but somehow at the moment he felt proud of and respect towards her, as her senior and fellow actor.

"Let's do so," he broke the uncomfortable silence. "I can't afford this shoot to be suspended, anyway. I don't have any other day to spare for the rest of the month." He glanced at Yashiro who nodded in confirmation.

Asami nodded her head warily, while Sho gaped at Ren as if Ren was crazier than Kyoko.

* * *

"Why the hell did you just agree with her?" Sho growled after he had managed to corner Ren.

The taller man just looked at him coldly. "What are you talking about?"

"Come on, don't pretend that you have no idea, Tsuruga, of course you know what I'm talking about," the singer scoffed. "You know how dangerous it is, so why did you agree with her when she said she wanted to continue the shoot?"

"She's a professional."

"That still doesn't justify her endangering herself! And if I don't know better, Tsuruga, I think you just don't care about her wellbeing," Sho spat in disgust.

Ren quickly saw red in his eyes. "I'd like to beg your pardon," he hissed, rage evident in his every being.

Sho was completely taken aback by this Ren. He of course could not forget his last encounter with the demon lord. Hell, at that time he was scared out of his wits, although he himself did not want to admit it.

"Don't you dare tell me that I don't care about her, you f****** damn excuse of a man," Ren - or Kuon - snarled. "You think I'm not worried about her? When I saw her falling, how do you think I felt? Huh? I felt like my heart stopped. And I felt like dying when I saw her sobbing after that.

"But she is a professional and determined to finish this project to perfection in the shortest amount of time needed. What she needs is the support for her, not being babied just because of someone who doesn't understand her claims that he's worried even though he doesn't really care about what she wants.

"And so what if she falls down? I'll just catch her whatever it takes. I'm not like someone who's only able to stare like a deer staring at a headlight while his beloved is close to death."

And with that he walked away, leaving Sho dumbfounded.

* * *

_**Kyoko looked down at her feet helplessly as her sister guided Ren on the steps of the ritual.**_

_**Truth to be told, she felt her happiest when she was with Ren, and she did not want this happiness to end, even if that means she had to be a fallen and bask in her sins.**_

_**On the other hand, she did not have the heart to break Kanae's heart again. She was her only family who could not be traded for anything.**_

_**Kyoko lifted her head slowly and gasped when she saw Ren's back. A pair of grey wings, the proof of him being a halfling, had started to darken to pitch black. She felt his hands tightened around hers, and she shifted her gaze to his face.**_

_**She could only see his sad smile, and her heart broke. At that moment, her wings had returned to their sparkling white color, while Ren's wings were completely dark.**_

_**Kyoko could not bring herself to break eye contact with Ren, even when Kanae grabbed her by her waist and started their ascend to the heavens. Silent tears started to flow down her cheeks.**_

_**She screamed when she saw Ren's body began to crumble into dust. The only things that occupied her mind were that she had not told him her feelings and did not want to lose him before that.**_

_**Kyoko immediately broke free from Kanae's hold on her and flew down, this time successfully, to Ren's direction. The now pure demon just stared at her in disbelief.**_

_**Everything suddenly felt like a slow motion for the two of them. Still flying down, Kyoko cupped Ren's face gently with her two hands, afraid of breaking him further. She smiled at him and whispered something before locking her lips with Ren's in a passionate kiss, which he welcomed in unexplainable happiness, his own tears rolling down his face.**_

_**'I love you.'**_

* * *

_**Kanae could not do anything but stare as her sister and the halfling disappeared into glowing lights. Her eyes were akready brimming with tears.**_

_**Kyoko had made her choice, and the only thing Kanae could do was praying for her happiness.**_

_**She watched as the couple broke their kiss and stared at each other lovingly before completely disappearing. Surprised she was when Kyoko turned in Ren's embrace to look up and smile at her.**_

_**Kanae smiled back and continued her flight back to her home.**_

* * *

Kyoko would not deny the fact that she had been utterly smittened by fairy tale stories. Stories that had magic, evil witches, talking animals, fairies, and princesses.

Especially the ones with princesses.

But what she actually loved the most was the part where they got to find their princes and shared a true love's kiss. And she had been longing for that to happen in her life deep in her heart, even after her feelings had been betrayed by Sho.

As she shared a sweet kiss with Ren, she was no longer the angel and he was no longer a halfling turned demon. She was just Kyoko and he was just Ren. She had found, not a prince, but a handsome knight in shining armor who would love her ever after.

She felt like she was the happiest princess, just like her dream.

* * *

**6 pages of Word... Typed on a bus going down a mountain... At first I really wanted to make Ren strangle Sho at some point, but in the end I went against it.**

**The next chapter will be the conclusion, but I will continue the story with a sequel. I still have not decided on a title, but so far I have had 7 chapters planned. I will try to upload Chapter 14 in 2 days.**

**Please review :) Thank you!**


	14. Epilogue - Before The Next Episode -

**A day faster than I thought, which is a good thing.**

**Special thanks for iceangel43, Evangeline43, 24, MythicalNights, GhiraLink, WitchMagpie, Bard the Wordy, firemageallanna, SKIPBEATfanfanfan, and Lapsina for faving, following, and reviewing the previous chapters.**

**And for the loyal readers, thank you for reading and reviewing again and again. I could not have gone on with this story without you guys.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skip-Beat!**

* * *

Chapter 14: Epilogue ~Before The Next Episode~

"And... CUT!"

The staff started lowering Kanae down. Asami and Marina looked at the monitor while the director replayed the captured scene.

A wide, but still professional, smile spread on Asami's face. "This is fabulous! The first seconds are even better than the previous take. I don't think we'll need another take. Any opinion, Akatoki-san?"

"I have the exactly same thoughts as yours, Asami-kun," Marina replied with a small smile. "I am just more than glad that the same unfortunate incident did not happen this time. We might as well offer a prayer of thanks for that."

The other crews then set into motion. They swarmed around Kanae and Kyoko and unhooked them from the wires. All three actors - the two actresses and Ren - could not stop smiling in relief, more than happy that the climax scene was finished and over with.

Hiou walked towards them and grinned widely at Kanae, who gave him a smile back. "I haven't seen you since the start of this scene," she said.

"Ah, well," Hiou mumbled, scratching his head. "As much as I wanted to watch, I have to admit that I was pretty bored. So I was spending time in the dressing room, studying the script for my drama tomorrow, and when I glanced at the clock, it was already this time."

Kanae just chuckled. "Just admit that you didn't really want to watch," she teased him.

Hiou's face got flustered. "No, seriously, I really wanted to watch it, especially the parts you were in!" he said with spirits, but then he froze and mumbled in a small voice just above a whisper, "But the romantic scenes between the Black Demon and Tsuruga were so freaky they gave me goosebumps."

The ravenette could not help but laugh. As good and mature an actor he was, Uesugi Hiou was still a growing kid at heart, and she adored that side of him.

Kanae froze. _Wait, did I just think that he was adorable?_ Her train of thoughts was cut when she heard his voice again.

"So?" the teen actor asked. "Did I miss something?"

"Actually, you missed on a lot," she replied. "Although I thought your manager knows about all that has happened up to this moment."

Hiou could not help but get curious.

On the other side of the studio, Ren and Kyoko walked hand in hand towards Yashiro, who apparently was struggling to tone down his squealing due to Kyoko's presence. The couple kept glancing sideways lovingly at each other with smiles on their face, making Yashiro's struggle not easier.

"Good job, you two," the bespectacled man said while trying to contain his fan-girl grin. "But I think it can be expected from you. One more scene and they can wrap it up."

Kyoko blushed lightIy thanks to the compliment. At the sight of that, Ren could not help but chuckle.

"What?" Kyoko asked, rising an eyebrow.

Ren smirked, and then lowered his head so that his lips were near his girlfriend's ears. Kuon was in total control, and he slyly whispered, "Have I ever told you how cute you are when you blush?"

Kyoko's blush deepened ten shades of red, causing Kuon to want to tease her more.

"Yeah, just like that," he whispered again. "You're as red as tomatoes I can just eat you up."

"Ku- Ren!" Kyoko snapped, still blushing deeply. "You're impossible!"

The tall actor just laughed, while Yashiro was curious on what his charge had said to the budding actress.

The doors suddenly burst open, revealing a parade of dancers dressed like nereids. Everyone was speechless as Lory Takarada, this time dressed like Neptune, complete with a golden trident in his hand, walked in and straight to Kyoko's direction.

"Mogami-kun!" his voice blared. "I heard that you were met with an accident?"

Kyoko sweat-dropped. "Err... Yes?"

The eccentric man grabbed Kyoko and started inspecting her for injuries. Ren could swear that his boss looked slightly disappointed when he could not find any, which drew him to a conclusion that may be, just may be, Lory had planned something grandeur amd dramatic in case Kyoko was really injured.

The president of LME then turned to Ren. "What about you, young man?"

"Well, at least I'm still kicking," Ren answered casually with a shrug.

Lory sighed, "Good, because if you don't, I don't know what to tell Kuu tomorrow and he will definitely behead me if he find out his 'son' and her boyfriend got hurt. Ah, good to see you, Marina-chan."

Ren and Kyoko turned around to see Marina standing near them with an amused look. "It is nice to see you again, Takarada-san," she said. "But sadly, I have to take your two talents here from you, because they have to go to costumes. Now."

* * *

_**A tall man with short, black hair was strolling on the even pathway on a lush meadow. He was clad in comfortable shirt and pants, and he looked relaxed, although if someone had a look very close, his eyes could show his loneliness, as if be was missing a part of his soul.**_

_**That was when he saw her, and was frozen in anticipation.**_

_**The girl was sitting on the middle of the meadow just near him with her back facing him. The top of her long dirty blonde hair was covered under a white hat. She was reading a book when a gust of wind blew her hat away towards the man.**_

_**She turned around and that was when he saw him.**_

_**Both pairs of eyes, black and blue, widened in surprise, and only seconds after that, softened with love and joy. The girl got up and she strode towards him before being caught in his embrace.**_

* * *

Yashiro could not be more surprised when he saw his boss crying in awe. He had known for so long that Lory was a big supporter of everything related to love, and it might not be an impossibility that the man agreed to colaborate with Akatoki Agency just because he wanted to be involved in something full of love such as this project.

The manager himself had to be equally awed. It might be just fate, or Marina may be a psychic, but the whole story of 'True Reflection' had accurately mirrored Ren and Kyoko's relationship, although more dramatic with the fantasy and all.

Not that he needed to concern himself with that, he thought with a slight shrug of his shoulder.

* * *

Sho did not know what else to think.

The song 'True Reflection' was written to express his feelings for a certain childhood friend of his. And he had always thought that he understood her the best.

He was proven wrong.

As he saw Kyoko smiling happily in Ren's arms, in and out character, he realized that he did not understand everything about her. Sure, he knew all of her habits and usual antics, but deep down, she was not what Sho had always labeled her as in his mind.

The true Mogami Kyoko was not a helpless crybaby or a simple-minded girl who would do anything just so that people would love her. This girl was strong to stand on her own, with compassion for others and love towards her job and friends.

Too bad for Sho that she was already taken, by the man whom he had sworn to defeat nonetheless. But there was no way he would give up the fight. He let himself a smirk as he remembered the excitement in Sanada's eyes when he told her about him and Kyoko, and from the looks on the journalist's face, it would appear on the gossip column sooner or later.

_Let's see what you would do about that, Kyoko_, Sho thought as he strode towards his dressing room to prepare for his part of the shoot.

* * *

A pair of golden eyes was eyeing the scenery from the window of the hotel room. It was showering outside, but the clouds did not hide the rays of sunlight, making the view just more beautiful for the owner of the said eyes.

The black-haired man was sitting on a chair near the window. His gaze was raking what he saw for details, and lit up when he could see some elves and undines flying around in the greeneries. They brought a smile up on his handsome face.

One of his hands was holding a pencil, gliding flawlessly over a sketch pad supported on his lap by his other hand. On the nearby table, a letter he just finished writing was lying next to a new envelope.

The only thing written on the envelope was 'Akatoki Marina'.

* * *

Kyoko was mildly surprised when she found Ren waiting for her in front of the dressing room. Kanae had gone home earlier, and the make-up artists were busy preparing Sho for the shoot, leaving Kyoko alone in the room.

She blushed mildly at the sight of him, and mumbled softly while suddenly finding her toes very interesting. "Good work today." She then looked up only to be greeted by his gentle yet blinding smile.

"You too," Ren replied. "Can I come in?"

In silent agreement, Kyoko stepped aside from the doorframe, letting the handsome actor in. Ren walked into the empty room and sat on the sofa, motioning for her to join him, which she gladly complied with.

"Where's Yashiro-san?" she asked in an attempt to break the awkward silence.

"The last time I saw him, he was talking to the President," Ren answered, his fingers playing with her chestnut tresses. "And before I forget, the President told me that he wanted to see you in his office later tonight. He seemed really pleased, so it might be a good news."

She only hummed in understanding, enjoying the feel of the delicate touch done by his rough fingers on her hair.

He brought her closer to him by circling one arm around her shoulder and sighed. "You can't imagine how glad I am that this's all finished. I can't stand being in the same room as that a******."

Kyoko just giggled at that, widening the smile on Ren's face into Corn's old childish grin. She loved it when he smiled like that, as it reminded her of their time in the clearing in Kyoto when they were little.

"However," Ren continued, "I'm not regretting being in this project one bit. I can't believe I'm now thankful that the Boss forced me into this."

Kyoko pulled herself away from him so that she could look at his face. She asked, "And why is that?"

Ren's gentle smile was back as he leaned his forehead on hers and they were just a breath away, nose to nose. "Because I got to hear you say that you love me. That, Princess, was the best time in my life ever."

He leaned in closer, hesitating a bit, waiting for Kyoko to pull away, but instead, Kyoko closed their remaining distance and gave him a peck on his lips, which then grew into a passionate kiss. Their lips moved slowly at first as they savored the feelings of being together with each other, until Kuon took over and deepened their kiss.

Kyoko gasped when she felt his tongue licking her bottom lips, creating an opportunity for his tongue to enter her mouth. Kuon took the chance and slipped his tongue in, tasting every corner of her and stroking her tongue. The girl felt a pleasant jolt along her spine when he did that, and involuntarily, she let out a soft moan.

Kuon groaned inwardly. _You've just been together with her for a week, dammit! Have a self-control, or else you'll scare her away!_

It took him all his sanity to tone down his kiss, keeping it chaste while once in a while nibbling her lips. When they broke the kiss, they looked into each other's eyes lovingly with gentle smiles on their face.

"Want to hear a secret?" Kyoko whispered. Kuon raised an eyebrow questioningly. "I don't regret any of this either. Not the PV, not meeting Shotaro, and most of all, not about falling in love with you, my fairy prince." She almost could not finish her sentence when Kuon pulled her to plant another passionate kiss, and she smiled on the touch of his lips on hers.

Because Tsuruga Ren, or Hizuri Kuon, or Corn the fairy prince, was the only one who could see her true reflection and loving her as she was, and she had nothing to regret about it.

* * *

**And that is the end of "True Reflection". I will continue the story in the sequel, "The Next Episode". This chapter is a bit short, but all in all I'm pretty pleased with this chapter.**

**I am also thinking of writing a one-shot with Maria as the star, but looking at how I have not thought about the right plot to go with my initial idea, the first chapter of "The Next Episode" might come out first. Or the one-shot will be canceled, which I dread to happen. But we'll see.**

**And I need ideas for Lory's cosplays for the next Skip-Beat! fanfic I write, so if you have any, please PM me if you want to share.**

**Please review :) Thank you!**


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